The movie critic who made Paul Newman rage with anger: “He’s a punk”
Hollywood truly changed in the 1960s, with filmmakers moving towards grittier and less studio-bound productions, but for those actors who emerged in the 1950s, they experienced a transitory moment in American cinema history, becoming key figures in the art form’s progression. The decade saw the likes of James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Paul Newman emerge with a different, more naturalistic sensibility that reflected the era’s changing views of masculinity and sexuality, and they became icons as a result.
Newman first made waves in 1958’s The Long, Hot Summer and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with his tanned appearance making him simply unforgettable. While he wasn’t keen on being known as a sex symbol, the star invariably became one, and he continued to find popularity in the 1960s as the lead in many classic movies like Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The actor’s success didn’t slow down, and over the coming years, he could be seen in movies from The Towering Inferno to The Color of Money, Road to Perdition, and even Cars, in which he voiced Doc Hudson. Despite the acclaim that Newman achieved over the decades, which included many rave reviews and even an Academy Award win in 1987, the actor found himself annoyed by a certain profession – film criticism.
While many people dream of watching movies and sharing their opinions on them for a living, Newman thought that film critics were just people who had failed to actually make a name for themselves in Hollywood, resorting to writing about the industry instead. “Ah, nobody reads that shit,” the actor told Rolling Stone. “But also, I guess it’s kind of hard on journalists. I’m sure there are a lot of times in the Time/Life situations where you’re sucked into a common form. The real bad ones, I gather, are the ladies’ magazines – Home Journal, Redbook.”
The actor continued, “It’s funny—the critics for Time magazine, the movie critics there all seem interchangeable. It’s because the style is so definite. They must impose a style.” Clearly, Newman wasn’t a big fan of reading movie reviews, and in one instance, he even called a certain journalist out on television. “I took off on Jay Cocks on the Cavett show. I did him in,” he explained.
Adding, “Yeah, he’s a punk, Cocks. He’s one of those guys who’s never been anywhere. He’s never been to the Bahamas, and yet he wears leathers, long hair, you know … Again, those guys who want to be in Hollywood, I wish they’d just go and settle there and write a script or whatever it is they want to do.”
Newman’s resistance to journalists seemed rather targeted towards Cocks, who, interestingly, ended up writing several screenplays for Martin Scorsese, whom Newman had worked with on The Color of Money. Cocks didn’t contribute to this film, however, instead penning the likes of The Age of Innocence and Gangs of New York.
The actor continued his attack on Cocks, concluding, “I said the worst thing about Cocks. I said he’s cute. He writes cute. That’s really got to set the guy on edge, you know. That must be the worst thing you could call a writer.”
