“They saw me coming!”: Christopher Walken’s kleptomania and the movie that stopped him in his tracks
Christopher Walken is undoubtedly one of the greats, but the question is whether you think he is a blockbuster actor.
His strange, idiosyncratic approach to acting often lends itself to independent dramas or black comedies, and while he’s never been a ‘leading man’ in the traditional sense, that hasn’t stopped him from making an absolute mint. According to The Numbers, his films have grossed a total of $1.6billion in the United States alone, baby numbers compared to the big boys, but it’s still mightily impressive.
The majority of his big hitters have come in the last few years. He lent his voice to a terrifying version of King Louie in the 2016 live-action version of The Jungle Book, which raked in a reported $966million, then his role as Emperor Shaddam IV in Dune: Part Two, though small, still contributed to its $715m gross. The rest of his earnings have come from small hits spread out over an insanely long career, one that hopefully won’t be wrapping up any time soon.
Given how much moolah he’s made over such a long time, you’d think that Walken wouldn’t need to be stingy, but in fact, the opposite is true. In an interview with The Guardian, the veteran star revealed one incredibly successful tactic to save money in a specific area.
“I never buy clothes,” he said, “Whenever I do a movie, all my clothing is from the set. They don’t give me anything. I steal”.
Walken is far from the only big name to have taken liberties with props and costumes, as Daniel Radcliffe famously walked away from the Harry Potter franchise with a set of his famous glasses in his pocket. At the other end of the scale, Robert Downey Jr took home a giant ‘A’ from the set of The Avengers, with the intention of mounting it to the wall of his office. These are all nice mementoes of a special time in an actor’s life, but clothes that you intend to wear every day? That’s something else entirely.
The strategy was always going to be risky, and one day, Walken’s light fingers caught up with him. After shooting wrapped on Batman Returns, in which he plays the villainous Max Shreck, the star decided to help himself to a bow tie and a set of cufflinks. However, someone must have cottoned on to his plan, because, as he revealed, “When I finished the last scene, I went back to my dressing room, and everything was gone. They saw me coming!”
To cut Walken some slack, there are far bigger items he could have pinched from the movie, Batman Returns, the second and final Batman movie directed by Tim Burton, which is a visual treat, from Danny DeVito’s top hat and monocle to Michel Pfeiffer’s iconic Catwoman outfit, so a set of cufflinks feels like a drop in the ocean. Couldn’t you have let him get away with this one, Tim?
It’s unknown if this put a complete stop to Walken’s thievery, but hopefully, he nicked a set of those Emperor robes from Dune, because they look comfy as hell.
