Jason Statham names his favourite actor of all time: “The coolest dude ever”
He might never win an Oscar or be the darling of a certain portion of the Internet, but there’s no denying that there are certain itches only Jason Statham can scratch. From his early work with Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch) to his high-octane action flicks (Crank, the ‘Transporter’ series), to his balls-to-the-wall blockbuster nonsense (Hobbs and Shaw, The Meg), Statham has made a career out of knowing what he’s good at and delivering for his fanbase. Some people might not care about this approach, but their bank accounts don’t listen.
The British star, who can count Quentin Tarantino as one of his fans, wasn’t always on the path to acting. He started out as a very capable sportsman, representing England in diving at the 1990 Commonwealth Games. He then became a model, representing brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Levi’s. It was on a shoot for French Connection that he met Ritchie, setting in motion both men’s rise to prominence.
Statham always had a passion for movies, though, as he explained to Rotten Tomatoes when he sat down to give his five favourite films. On a list that also includes Enter the Dragon and The Godfather, the tough man waxed lyrical about the 1967 prison movie Cool Hand Luke. “I saw it years ago, when my mum and dad made me watch it,” he said, before explaining how his eyes were drawn to the man in the title role – the legendary Paul Newman.
“I was like ‘This guy is just the coolest dude ever,’” he opined. “He just had such charisma. It just really spoke to me, and it’s one of those films I can watch time and time again. Paul Newman! It was like, Oh my God, look at this guy, he’s so cool! It was pretty much the first time I saw Paul Newman and I’ve been hooked on most of his movies ever since.” This is backed up by the other films on Statham’s list, The Sting and Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, both of which star Newman alongside Robert Redford.
Newman had already made a name for himself in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Hustler, but you could argue it was his turn as the banjo-strumming convict that really opened people’s eyes to his potential. In Roger Ebert’s review of the movie, he highlights how the character of Lucas ‘Luke’ Jackson inverts traditional ‘antihero’ stereotypes by being “a good guy who becomes a bad guy because he doesn’t like us.”
The movie has gone down in pop culture history. The line from Strother Martin’s character, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate” is one of the great movie quotes, and the scene of Luke downing hard-boiled eggs, which was unfortunately achieved through camera trickery, is as iconic as it is stomach-churning. For his work, Newman was nominated for a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar, one of 10 overall nominations for one of the all-time greats.
Though he never got the chance to work with his hero, elements of his on-screen charisma can be found across Statham’s work. You’d never directly compare the two, but it’s fascinating to see how actors are influenced by other actors, even when they occupy entirely different ecosystems.
