The “goddamn embarrassing” actor John Wayne couldn’t stand working with: “She was rude”
Making an enemy of John Wayne wasn’t a particularly difficult task, with the actor possessing a famously short fuse that saw him butt heads with countless co-stars and filmmakers during his career.
The easiest way to piss him off was by being a communist, obviously. ‘The Duke’ saw himself as cinema’s staunchest defender of all-American values, and anyone who was even tangentially connected to the party ran the risk of being blacklisted, blackballed, or called out by the furious big-screen cowboy.
If you weren’t one of those damned commies, then trying to steal his thunder was another way to get under Wayne’s skin. He didn’t take too kindly to method actors, showy stars who attempted to overshadow him onscreen, or directors who dared to try and tell him how to do his job.
Ironically, for someone who made no bones about enjoying the odd tipple and was regularly found pissed as a fart when he wasn’t required on set, hard-drinking Hollywood favourites became another bugbear. Or, to be more specific, one of them did. Namely, the legendary Rita Hayworth.
Her peak was well behind her by the time she partnered up with ‘The Duke’ for 1964’s Circus World, and she’d spent years struggling with alcoholism. Addiction isn’t an easy thing to contend with, but neither Wayne nor director Henry Hathaway were willing to make excuses when it affected her professionalism.
“Duke became increasingly frustrated with her,” the filmmaker explained to Michael Munn. “She’d turn up not knowing her lines. She’d drink and insult people. And Duke had to play love scenes with her, and he just had no rapport with her. It’s sad to say, but Rita was a faded film star who drank too much and thought she was above everyone else.”
Hathaway only cast her because the producer, Samuel Bronston, “insisted she was still a major attraction for European audiences.” Whether that was true or not, he found her more hassle than she was worth, even if her performance in Circus World was good enough to earn her a Golden Globe nomination for ‘Best Actress – Drama’ despite his issues working with her.
Once Wayne realised he was dealing with a tricky customer who regularly veered into difficult territory, he sought to nip it in the bud. To try and form some kind of bond with Hayworth that would be reflected onscreen, he invited her out to dinner with his wife, Pilar, and daughter, Aissa, which he came to regret.
“She hadn’t drunk much, and already her speech became slurred,” he recalled. “She was rude to the waiters, which was just goddamn embarrassing, so I gave them all big tips and handed out autographed cards. You have to try to be decent to everybody, unless they give you a reason not to.”
Hayworth might well have been the worst thing ‘The Duke’ was forced to contend with on the set of Circus World, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was almost killed when a set piece almost went wrong with disastrous consequences.
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