Christopher Walken’s stubbornness nearly cost him one of his greatest roles: “I told him there was no way”
One of the benefits of being a respected elder statesman in Hollywood is that auditions become fewer and further between, with roles simply being offered instead. It was something Christopher Walken had grown so accustomed to that when the status quo was upended, he almost shot himself in the foot.
If a filmmaker wants to recruit Walken for their movie, then there’s a high chance they’ll get him, since the veteran hardly ever turns anything down. By his own admission, since he doesn’t have children, doesn’t have any hobbies, and hates sitting around doing nothing, he’ll star in almost anything that comes his way.
Only if it’s a straight-up offer, apparently, because when one of the finest directors in cinema history wanted him to audition for a part, he was so aghast that he almost turned it down on principle. On one hand, you can see where he’s coming from, because he’s Christopher fucking Walken.
Since the late 1970s, he’d been one of the most recognisable, ubiquitous, and reliable character actors in the business, cornering the market on playing eccentric weirdos in a string of seminal films, cult classics, and ‘New Hollywood’ staples, so why would he need to bother being put through his performative paces?
On the other hand, most actors, regardless of who they are and the reputation they’ve built for themselves, would find Steven Spielberg awfully hard to resist. And yet, when the legendary director wanted to hire the legendary actor to play Frank Abagnale Sr in Catch Me If You Can, he was affronted.
It wasn’t an unconditional offer; Spielberg wanted to meet Walken and have him run through some pages with his onscreen son, Leonardo DiCaprio. It had been a long time since anyone had asked him to read lines before agreeing to hire him, and having become so used to everything being a simple yes or no situation, he considered rejecting it out of hand.
“Chris didn’t want to do it,” his long-time agent, Toni Howard, recalled. “I told him there was no way he was going to get the role without a meeting.” In the original iteration of Catch Me If You Can, which was set to be helmed by Gore Verbinski, Ed Harris had been cast as Frank Abagnale Sr, and you can definitely see him in the part.
Walken wasn’t going to be cast unless he swallowed his pride, agreed to what was ostensibly an audition alongside DiCaprio in front of Spielberg, and proved to the director that his instincts were right, underlining that the Deer Hunter alum was indeed the ideal person to bring his bespoke brand of mischievous charm and gravitas to the character.
Of course, he went through with it, stole every scene he was in, and earned his first Oscar nomination in 24 years, which wouldn’t have happened had he stuck to his guns and let his stubbornness get the better of him.
