The movie James Caan called one of his favourites: “A very good picture”
A legendary character actor who probably should have been a movie star if he didn’t have such a habit of turning down roles that would go on to become iconic, James Caan still did plenty alright for himself despite missing out on a mind-blowing number of opportunities.
The French Connection, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Kramer vs. Kramer, Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, and Superman were all sent his way only to be rejected, and even one of them could have launched his career to untold heights and vast riches.
That being said, he’s an Academy Award-nominated star with three Golden Globe nods who worked with some of the greatest directors in history on a number of classic films, whether it was Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Robert Altman’s Countdown, Richard Attenborough’s A Bridge Too Far, or Steven Spielberg’s 1941, so the what-ifs hardly defined him.
Beginning his career in the early 1960s, it would take Caan almost a decade to land a breakthrough part, which came when he secured a Primetime Emmy nomination for headlining made-for-TV movie Brian’s Song, which was swiftly followed by Coppola’s timeless crime story. It wasn’t his first dalliance with the director, though, with their maiden collaboration providing a unique challenge for the actor.
Three years prior to The Godfather, Caan played Jimmy Kilgannon in road drama The Rain People, where his brain-damaged former college football player is found hitchhiking by Shirley Knight’s Natalie Ravenna, who left her husband to embark on an automotive journey of self-discovery on the open highways.
When asked by AV Club if there were any roles he considered favourites or ones that presented new and interesting challenges as a performer, Caan pointed to The Rain People as a prime example, calling it a “very good picture”.
“I was 28 years old. And I remember this guy who had brain damage. I remember asking, what does brain damage mean? And the point is what I did was I just decided that anything that’s real is worthwhile,” he said. “To really listen and really talk to the person. Now, I know that sounds oversimplified, but it’s true. A lot of times people are talking and they’re listening to themselves, they’re looking over their shoulder, who knows what the hell they’re thinking about. But to really listen and to really talk and not to anything, nothing.”
Caan didn’t want “music or scenery or whatever to lead my emotions,” and The Rain People helped him hone a more naturalistic and reactive style that wasn’t influenced by the external factors that surrounded him, one that would serve him very well over the decades as he set about becoming one of Hollywood’s most reliable and in-demand ‘tough guy’ actors.
