The “genius” 2010 co-star John Goodman called his ultimate hero: “I always looked up to him”
He’s never been very good at talking himself up as an actor, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, but John Goodman has always been much more receptive to showering his co-stars in praise.
Jean Dujardin might have called him a cunt when they starred together in George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, but he said it in jest, with the two striking up a firm friendship when they first shared the screen together in the ‘Best Picture’ winner, The Artist.
He’s also a huge fan of Bruce Willis and Dennis Quaid, which has as much to do with the three of them hanging out as jobbing actors in the 1980s as it does the success they found after finally making it, even if it took him longer than he would have liked to make a movie with the Die Hard icon.
Alan Arkin was another one, with Goodman patiently biding his time for decades to cross performative swords with a veteran he’d admired from afar, to say nothing of how highly he’s spoken of Steve Buscemi, Peter O’Toole, and Laurie Metcalf, to name just a few of his favourite collaborators from over the years.
They’ve all had kind words to say about him, but trying to get the esteemed character actor to say nice words about himself is an entirely different matter. Few actors with such an impressive track record across so many genres over so many years have been as self-critical as Goodman, and it makes him uncomfortable when people thickly ladle the praise on in his direction.
However, when he’s the one holding the ladle, it’s another story. It may not have been their first time as co-stars, but 11 years after they’d first encountered each other on Sea of Love, The Big Lebowski favourite hadn’t lost any of his enthusiasm for the leading man of 2010’s HBO movie You Don’t Know Jack, Al Pacino.
“He’s a genius,” was how Goodman put it, a sentiment that anyone with eyes and an appreciation of Hollywood’s last five decades can concur with. “I’d be doing scenes, and I’d pinch myself. I get to work with Al Pacino! When I was a baby actor, I always looked up to him. They tell you that you’re going to be disappointed when you meet your heroes, but that’s not true in this case.”
The feeling was absolutely mutual, with Pacino having gone on record as being a lifelong fan of Goodman’s, with the latter’s performance in 1992’s sports biopic, The Babe, convincing the former that he was watching “one of our greatest actors.” Ironically, Goodman doesn’t feel the same way, because he’d have loved the chance to do the whole thing over again.
The made-for-television biopic of Jack Kevorkian, who was convicted of murder in 1999 for assisting over 100 patients in their death, won Pacino a Primetime Emmy for his leading performance and got Goodman on the shortlist for his supporting turn, so even though it was a bit of a love-in, they still did the work.
