The “goofy” movie Christopher Walken hates with a passion: “It’s terrible!”
It goes without saying that Christopher Walken is a strange guy, and it makes perfect sense that he’s played so many strange guys on screen when he’s said that every character he’s ever played is, in some way, just plain old Christopher Walken.
There are a few bells and whistles added on, though, and they’re usually Walkenised. For instance, he’d secretly been using Bugs Bunny as one of his primary influences throughout his career, which would sound completely and utterly ridiculous if it had been said by anyone other than him.
Since it was Christopher Walken saying the cartoon rabbit had been a pivotal inspiration, it made perfect sense, which is the man in microcosm. He may have literally said, “No matter what character I’m playing, it’s me,” but he’s also been using Elmer Fudd’s arch-nemesis as a performative touchstone, as one does.
It sounds obvious, but the Academy Award winner is so good at playing eccentric weirdos because he’s an eccentric weirdo. He’s Hollywood’s favourite offbeat uncle, or grandfather now that he’s in his dotage, and the one thing everybody who works with him wants to have is a Christopher Walken story of their own.
Whether he’s farting into a tape recorder, pretending it’s his birthday so people will bring him a cake, or informing Will Ferrell that the words “more cowbell” had ruined his life, history is littered with anecdotes that are supremely unusual, but perfectly on-brand for the Deer Hunter and Pulp Fiction favourite.
Patrick Warburton was hoping he’d have a similar experience, and much to his delight, he did. Because he’ll show up in anything he’s offered, Walken was more than happy to reprise his role as the mob-connected janitor, Clem, in David Spade’s completely unnecessary legacy sequel, Joe Dirt 2.
His co-star, who’d only signed on because he was informed that he’d be killed by the man himself, discovered that there’s one movie his opposite number can’t stand. “While I was hanging out with him in New Orleans, which is where we shot it, it’s a rainy night, we’re under an umbrella,” Warburton recalled to Nova Stream. “And I wanted something, just some unique Christopher Walken moment.”
As if by magic, his prayers were answered. “And, at one point, he just looked at me, and he goes, ‘Have you ever seen that movie, The Wild One, with Brando?'” Warburton continued. “And I go, ‘Yeah’. And he goes, ‘Goofy. It’s terrible!’ It was just so funny to listen to Christopher Walken shit on Marlon Brando. It made it all worth it!”
The Wild One isn’t a bad film, although it is the only one of the five movies Brando made between 1951 and 1955 that didn’t earn him an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Actor’. It helped usher in the ‘outlaw biker’ subgenre, too, so it’s an important and influential flick, even if it’s one that Walken can’t stand.
