The “insane” reason Kurt Russell never performed on stage: “Makes me want to throw up”
For many actors, both aspiring and established, treading the boards is a rite of passage. The stage is often where they cut their teeth, sharpen their skills, or seek out a new challenge after succeeding in cinema, but at no point has it ever held any appeal for Kurt Russell.
That may not come as too much of a surprise when he’s hardly the first name that comes to mind when thinking up a wish list to perform the works of William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, or Tennessee Williams, but, with the greatest respect, bigger stars than Russell have fancied their chances on Broadway.
And yet, John Carpenter’s muse and the reigning king of the cult classic has never held even the slightest inclination to appear in a play, and his biggest issue seems to be his enduring persona as one of Hollywood’s most enduring everymen and the distinct lack of ego that comes with it.
Russell’s initiation into the industry saw him boot Elvis Presley in the shins and become one of Walt Disney’s most trusted young stars and confidants, whose influence went so far as to reshape Mary Poppins, so he’s always been a screen-only kind of guy.
Even then, Russell avoided TV entirely between his Primetime Emmy-nominated performance as ‘The King’ in Carpenter’s eponymous 1979 made-for-television film and the AppleTV+ series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and his return was driven by the chance to play the same character as his son, Wyatt, in different timelines.
For the most part, then, it’s been movies or bust. And when that feature-length career began in 1963 and shows no signs of slowing down, if Russell wanted to take his talents to Broadway or anywhere else he could perform in a play, it stands to reason that he would have done it long before now. He’s never been nominated for an Academy Award, and there’s no chance he’ll be in the running for a Tony either.
As he explained to Cigar Aficionado, though, he simply cannot abide the self-serving nature of the curtain call. It’s a tried-and-trusted practice of the stage world; the ensemble returns following the end of their performance, soaks in the adulation from the gathered audience, and bows before the adoring crowd. As far as Russell is concerned, it’s a test of his gag reflex.
“Having to act and behave as if you’re humble is insane. Insane,” he declared. “These guys, actors, bask in what they consider their glory, their due, and that makes me just want to throw up, Linda Blair-style. Throw up.” An unpleasant mental image, sure, but a solid reason for why he wouldn’t be caught dead on stage.
Instead, Russell has dedicated his entire professional life to the screen and the screen only, and until something drastic changes, there’s no chance he’d ever swap performing in front of the cameras for a live audience to avoid an Exorcist-lite projectile vomiting incident. Unless he has it written into his contract that he doesn’t have to do the curtain call.
