Clancy Brown was “absolutely convinced” he’d be fired from ‘The Shawshank Redemption’
Quite possibly the greatest movie to ever fall short of expectations at the box office, at least during its initial run, The Shawshank Redemption has spent the last 30 years comfortable in its position as one of the most beloved and endlessly rewatchable films of all time.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find anyone who hasn’t seen Frank Darabont’s Stephen King adaptation at least once, and most folks have seen it a handful of times, if not many more. It’s just one of those feel-good flicks that can be watched at any time in any place, and it never loses its impact.
The cast is impeccable from top to bottom, whether it’s Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in the leading roles of Andy Dufresne and Ellis ‘Red’ Redding, Bob Gunton’s vindictive warden, Samuel Norton, James Whitmore’s heartbreaking Brooks Hadley, or Clancy Brown’s brutal Byron Hadley, who rules the titular prison and its inmates with an iron fist.
However, despite being afforded the leeway to improvise much of his foul-mouthed dialogue, the latter was sure he’d be given his marching orders. It sounds ridiculous, given that it’s one of the most memorable performances of the veteran character actor’s career, but as he explained to Michael Rosenbaum, he was adamant that Shawshank had hired the wrong guy, even when he was airborne and en route.
“On the flight out, I was convinced they’d made a mistake; they thought I was somebody else,” he recalled. “I’m sitting there in first class, and I see all these actors roll in, all these really good actors, and I see Bill Sadler. And I’m like, ‘Oh, damn, that’s who I think I am, they think I’m Bill Sadler, and he’s going to be playing my role.'”
Of course, Brown had no idea that Sadler had actually been cast as Heywood, a longtime inmate of Shawshank Penitentiary, which left him stricken with a serious case of imposter syndrome: “The whole flight, I was just like, ‘This is going to be so embarrassing when I get there and they tell me that they’re going to send me home. I was absolutely convinced.'”
It can’t have been the nicest trip for Brown, who spent the entire duration of the flight thinking he was going to be kicked off Shawshank as soon as he turned up and everyone realised he wasn’t supposed to be there, and that horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach didn’t subside until he’d landed, checked in, travelled to the location, and sat down with the rest of the ensemble for their first read-through of the script.
Even that wasn’t enough to convince him entirely, and it wasn’t until the cast gathered around the table and he saw his name on the script right next to Hadley’s name that he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. “It was the most intense imposter syndrome I’ve ever had,” Brown understandably shared. “And once we started going, it was fine, it was OK.”
Despite having decades of experience and a laundry list of credits under his belt by that point, never mind passing the audition process, he was sure The Shawshank Redemption had made an error in flying him out until it was literally spelt out in front of him.
