Christopher Walken’s “dream role” is still up for grabs: “I’d have to think about it”
Christopher Walken began appearing on screens in the early 1950s when he was just a child, falling in love with showbiz when he was hardly old enough to understand what that meant, and becoming a long-enduring mainstay of the industry roster.
All he knew was that he wanted to be in front of the camera, trying on different characters and contributing to long-lasting pieces of both entertainment and art. You can see Walken in various bit parts during the 1970s in movies like Annie Hall, when he was actually trying to forge a successful acting career as an adult, but it wasn’t until the following year that he got his big break with a supporting role in Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, rightfully earning him an Academy Award.
It might’ve seemed like the boom of his career, but he’d been acting for over 20 years at this point; he was more than due the praise. Since then, the actor has moved between blockbusters and indie films with apparent ease, playing everyone from hard criminals to vampires and musically talented fathers. Walken has the range to play whatever is required, a skill that he has acquired from never limiting himself to one kind of movie, with any budget and scope is his oyster if he so chooses.
He might never have limited himself, but there are still roles he hasn’t got round to playing, though. Even in his over seven-decade-long career, Walken still hasn’t portrayed one certain historic figure that he would do anything to get a chance to embody.
Abraham Lincoln? Napoleon? William Shakespeare? No, Walken’s most coveted dream role is someone who sits on the weirder side of history: he wants to play Nostradamus. The famous astrologer and oracle who still invites widespread debate today, centuries later, has already been played in a terribly received biopic back in 1994, but that doesn’t mean that it’s too late for the elder statesman to have a crack at a much better version.
Nostradamus, directed by Roger Christian, was a huge flop, with Tchéky Karyo playing the titular character. With Walken on board, though, a movie about the controversial figure might have some strong legs to stand out. You can’t deny the fascination surrounding Nostradamus; he’s the kind of historical figure that you get obsessed with as a kid, furiously reading about his predictions and how many of them have supposedly come true. While you might argue that his ideas were vague and easily debunked (how could he possibly predict 9/11?), his life would undeniably make for a good biopic.
Laughed at by many, Nostradamus has always divided people, and if anyone could take on such a complex role, it’s Walken. He once told IGN about his hope to play him, saying, “That’s a good question. I’d have to think about that. Maybe some historical character. Nostradamus.”
Maybe one day his dream will come true, but it’s a shame that Nostradamus never wrote a prediction about who would play him in a Hollywood biopic centuries later.
