The director Kurt Russell called the second coming of Orson Welles: “My favourite filmmaker”
Kurt Russell is one of those rare stars who have found consistent success from an incredibly early age, having joined Hollywood when he was just a child. As we all know, many child stars fail to make it out of the industry unscathed, but Russell not only emerged without significant trauma, but he also went on to find further acclaim as an adult.
The actor experienced stardom with a Walt Disney Productions contract that allowed him to appear in many beloved family-friendly movies throughout the 1960s and the early 1970s, and he defined many people’s childhoods with his frequent appearances on screen. However, by the end of the decade, he was ready for adult roles, so he took on the rather mammoth task of portraying the King of Rock and Roll in the 1979 film Elvis, which earned him widespread acclaim.
Directed by John Carpenter, Russell would soon reunite with him for various movies including Escape from New York, The Thing, and Big Trouble in Little China, becoming known for his ability to play tough characters and action stars. In the years that followed, Russell appeared in action movies like Backdraft, Breakdown, and Carpenter’s Escape from LA, while also earning acclaim in the western Tombstone, and starring in several romantic movies like Overboard and Winter People. He was on fire.
Evidently, Russell has tried his hand at many different genres, but his love of action marks quite the shift from Disney movies like The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes he grew up performing in. Since his Disney days, he has worked with a range of different filmmakers, but there is one whom he calls his favourite, having collaborated with him three times.
You’d think Russell might pick Carpenter as one of his favourite directors, but instead, he chose Quentin Tarantino. Talking to Bill Simmons, he revealed, “I’m doing Death Proof with Quentin Tarantino. He’s my favourite filmmaker. I think he’s the Orson Welles of our time. I think he’s great. And he’s a blast and he’s brilliantly talented. And I’m doing Death Proof, having a ball, playing this Stuntman Mike character, just having a ball.”
That’s a bold claim to make, considering that Welles made what is widely considered to be one of the most influential movies of all time, Citizen Kane, but Russell truly believes, like many modern cinema fans, that Tarantino is a genius. They first collaborated with each other on Death Proof, where Russell starred as a ruthless killer who uses his car as his weapon, before teaming up again for The Hateful Eight.
The violent western movie saw Russell accidentally get himself into hot water when he smashed a guitar, which was almost 150 years old and extremely rare, unaware that it had not yet been swapped out with the replica he was meant to destroy. Still, The Hateful Eight was well-received, even if Russell felt incredibly guilty about his mistake.
This blunder didn’t stop Tarantino from working with Russell again, however, and they teamed up for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood a few years later, with the actor narrating the movie while also starring as the stuntman Randy.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Tarantino revealed why he loves working with Russell. He explained that “Kurt is absolutely the youngest guy that I can work with, who actually lived that life,” referring to the actor’s experience of the industry during the 1960s, which was vital to shaping Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.
It seems as though Tarantino’s love of classic filmmaking, paired with his niche interest in the bygone days of Hollywood that Russell actually got to live through, has impressed the actor, making them quite the perfect pairing.
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