The iconic role Kurt Russell never wants to play again: “Let’s go do something fresh”
Kurt Russell reached iconicity through his work in cult classic films like The Thing, Death Proof, Escape from New York and Big Trouble in Little China. Whether through his repeated collaborations with Quentin Tarantino and John Carpenter, reaching global stardom through the incendiary influence of the director’s approach to the horror genre or the campy violence of The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Russell is considered one of the most legendary actors of his generation.
After beginning with roles in the western TV series The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, he was offered a contract with Walt Disney and slowly journeyed towards his later reputation as the grizzly leading man, becoming a new figure of masculinity through his weathered characters, often playing unconventional anti-heroes. But despite gaining success for playing many iconic characters, there was one role that he refused to reprise, with a reasoning that many current actors would do well to infuse into their own creative philosophy.
Escape from New York, directed in 1981, was another instalment to Carpenter’s immersive filmography. The film is set in a world ravaged by crime, with Manhattan being turned into a walled prison where prisoners are left to their own devices. But after the U.S. president crashes a plane on the island, war hero Snake Plissen is given 24 hours to bring him back.
Snake is one of Russell’s most revered characters. The rugged action hero lives in an abandoned and dark world plagued by violence. People live on the streets, and everyone is intent on surviving. With no singularly ‘good’ character to root for, the world is incredibly pessimistic.
However, despite the project’s success and Russell’s infamous legacy as the character, the actor was not keen to reprise the role. He described his loyalty to Carpenter after an idea was floated around for someone else to create the sequel.
When discussing this, Russell said, “I wasn’t interested in expanding, financially, off of something that we had created, or that I had created in terms of character. I get business people, sure. ‘We could do this with that, or we could do this with that.’ I look at it and go, ‘That’s not written by John [Carpenter]. That doesn’t smell right.’ John’s not here to do this with. I’m not going to do that. Let’s go do something new. Let’s go do something fresh. Let’s go create another iconic character rather than saying, ‘What can we bleed off of this iconic character?’”
In a cinematic world full of spinoffs and iconic stories being turned into IP, with studios like Amazon and Marvel creating endless iterations of their characters until they become bland and annoying, rendering any spark of charm entirely redundant. While it may have been tempting to return to a familiar story, Russell ultimately cared more that the story was told for the right reasons, and when so many actors don’t possess the same creative integrity and leap at the chance of earning more money from a beloved film, it is refreshing that Russell opted to stay away from Snake and choose another project.
