Mel Brooks names the single biggest regret of his Hollywood career: “It cost me a lot”
Most people who’ve had a career even remotely comparable to Mel Brooks shouldn’t have anything to regret, but the multi-talented comedy veteran admitted there was one thing that always bugged him.
From the outside looking in, he should be more than happy with his lot. After all, he’s Mel Brooks, one of the most influential comics of his era, who’s enjoyed seven decades in the spotlight as an actor, writer, director, and producer, creating several of the greatest movies his genre of choice has ever seen.
Even as he approaches his centenary, Brooks remains as razor-sharp as ever, and, should everything go to plan and Spaceballs 2 is released without issue in the summer of 2027, he’ll make his first big-screen appearance in a live-action picture since 1999 as a 100-year-old man. Still 1,900 years short of one of his most famous characters, but impressive nonetheless.
As much as he’s scaled back his workload in recent years, the EGOT winner remains active as a producer, executive producer, and raconteur. When you’ve had a career as long as his, there are plenty of stories to tell, and one of the most downbeat is the things he wanted to do but didn’t. He’s accomplished more than most, but one perennial what-if has always haunted him.
When he produced films like David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, David Cronenberg’s The Fly, Freddie Francis’ The Doctor and the Devils, Graeme Clifford’s Frances, and David Jones’ 84 Charing Cross Road through his Brooksfilms company, the Blazing Saddles mastermind always kept his name out of the marketing, for fear that anyone would think they were getting a comedy.
Beyond that, that sense of guilt by association also impacted his own choices. “I was afraid that part of my baggage would be, ‘Oh, crazy Mel Brooks, funny Mel Brooks,'” outlined. “And if I were going to do the Frances Farmer story, they wouldn’t buy it. I’m sure they would see The Elephant Man and wait for the big laughs. ‘Wait’ll he shows his trunk’, you know?”
That was understandable from a producer’s standpoint, but it seeped into his directing, too. “It cost me a lot,” he sighed. “It cost me being a George Stevens or Billy Wilder. It cost me being a serious director. I know how to do it; drama is the same kind of set-ups same kind of writing. You just have to know the interior, the emotional base of it. I would have been a good serious director.”
Not to put too fine a point on it, but what was stopping him? He owned his own production company, he was a known commodity, and he had a lot of friends in high places, so there was no reason why Brooks couldn’t at least try to diversify his output and try his luck at something other than rib-tickling hilarity. Then again, it sounds like he let the external noise get to him, and his belief that audiences would get the wrong impression ultimately held him back.
Peter Farrelly, Adam McKay, Todd Phillips, Ben Stiller, Rob Reiner, Mike Nichols, and Ron Howard are just some of the directors who started off in comedy before stretching their wings and tackling more serious fare, and most of them have either won or been nominated for at least one Academy Award for their efforts. It didn’t bother them, but for whatever reason, it bothered Brooks so much that he came to regret it.
