The hit movie that “embarrassed” Peter Fonda: “It made a tonne of fuckin’ bucks”
It might have looked like Peter Fonda had Hollywood at his fingertips when he was young, with a famous father and a sister swiftly rising the industry’s ranks, but he was ready to do things a little bit differently.
The actor instead opted to immerse himself in the countercultural movement that was kicking off, taking acid and lending himself to various indie movies, like the biker film The Wild Angels, in which he starred opposite Nancy Sinatra, and the psychedelic The Trip, sharing the screen with Dennis Hopper. These films reflected a new era for American cinema where counterculture was being depicted on the big screen authentically – it was defiant and rebellious.
By the end of the decade, Fonda and Hopper had crafted a masterwork, though, co-starring in Easy Rider, which Hopper would direct. Who deserved sole credit for the screenplay was a battle that waged between the pair for decades.
Still, the film was a hit, ushering in the New Hollywood era, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the influence of these previous low-budget Roger Corman movies, which inspired Hopper and Fonda to make a movie that took this image of counterculture, drug experimentation, and the desire for freedom to deeper, darker levels.
Trippy, brutal, tragic – Easy Rider cemented Fonda as a face in Hollywood, but he continued to keep things rather low-key. A few years later – after directing a few movies and starring in the negatively reviewed Two People – he took on a role in Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. The film saw him play a hopeful NASCAR wannabe who manages to steal some money with his pal, only to end up on the run with his one-night stand, Mary. It has a fun premise, mixing road drama with romance, heist drama, and action crime thriller, but it left Fonda feeling “embarrassed.”
Made on a budget of just over $1million, the movie made around $28m, proving to be a hit with late-night young audiences. “It was an unbelievable success,” he quipped to Psychotronic, adding, “It made a ton of fuckin’ bucks. We also shot that film pretty much in sequence. We had about 20 exciting stunts and about five minutes’ worth of acting. We had to make our scenes count. Adam Roarke, Susan George and myself were sort of like the Three Stooges, I guess you could say. I couldn’t believe that so many moviegoers had seen the film four or five times.”
Sometimes, a movie just becomes popular, and there’s nothing you can do about it – Fonda had to reckon with the success of a film he wasn’t proud of, although he could breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn’t the most enduring of movies, and within a few years, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry wasn’t exactly looked back on as a ‘70s masterpiec, as Easy Rider would always be Fonda’s defining film.
“I could understand them seeing Easy Rider four or five times or maybe even the Hired Hand, but why Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry? Heck, I was even embarrassed by the title. Although I must add that I had a fine time making the film. It was a lot of fun,” he added.
Clearly, Fonda‘s decision to work on smaller budget productions could sometimes result in a few duds, and while this one might have been a financial success, he wasn’t happy to have had a starring role in a film he deemed embarrassing.
