“I’m glad I didn’t know you when you had two lungs”: Katharine Hepburn’s greatest backhanded compliment
One of the reasons that Katharine Hepburn has remained such a beloved figure all these years on from her dominance during the Old Hollywood era comes down to her strong and defiant personality.
During her rise to fame in the 1930s and 1940s, women weren’t exactly given the most autonomy, both on and off screen, but Hepburn was always ready to rise to a challenge. She was uninterested in playing the hapless damsel; instead ensuring that she was given complex parts that actually said something real and honest about womanhood, and with an effortless knack for humorous roles, she appeared in some of the most beloved comedies of all time, like The Philadelphia Story and Bringing Up Baby, to name just a few.
But she could also turn in a much more dramatic performance; her range was incredibly varied. Her career certainly had its ups and downs, yet there was no doubt that, even in her ‘box-office poison’ era, she’d get back to the top somehow.
Her draw was too unique, her off-screen persona as a strongly independent and straight-talking woman captivating people at a time when women were meant to be passive, as she was audacious enough to be a Hollywood icon, wear trousers and shun makeup, never settling down into marriage or having children to instead prioritise her career. That might all seem pretty standard today, but back then, Hepburn was a rather unconventional case.
She was much more outspoken than many of her counterparts, and even into old age, she was recorded as being rather short-tempered and icy. In a 1992 interview with Time magazine, the piece begins with Hepburn’s dissatisfaction with the journalist arriving at her home ten minutes late.
“How dare you keep me waiting? Are you that stupid?” she’d said, “You are not sorry. You are stupid,” Hepburn had accused, “You’re an idiot.”
Clearly, you didn’t want to get on Hepburn’s bad side, but she wasn’t always such a difficult person to get along with; Cary Grant heaped praise on his frequent co-star and friend, once calling her “the most completely honest woman”. Sometimes, she was a little too honest, but in the case of a certain star she once expressed extreme hatred for, her comments can be forgiven.
You see, she didn’t like John Wayne, the iconic western star who had a reputation for being incredibly racist, sexist, and homophobic. In 1953, he wanted her to star in his movie Hondo, but she turned down the part due to his support for the House Un-American Activities Committee, which blacklisted many industry professionals because of suspected communist ties. Hepburn had a change of heart two decades later, though, and in 1975, shortly before Wayne’s death, she’d appear opposite him in Rooster Cogburn. Yet, during the wrap party, she didn’t hold back in sharing her opinion on him with the actor himself.
She reportedly said, “I’m glad I didn’t know you when you had two lungs; you must have been a real bastard. Losing a hip has mellowed me, but you!”
By this point in Wayne’s life, he was dying from stomach cancer, although he’d been diagnosed with lung cancer over a decade prior, which saw him have one lung and several ribs removed.
Hepburn’s comments might seem pretty harsh, but calling Wayne a “bastard” is surely justified considering that, just a few years prior, he’d told Playboy, “I believe in white supremacy until the Blacks are educated to a point of responsibility”. Any criticism wielded against the star was thus well-deserved.
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