The flop movie Paul Newman admitted he only made for the money: “An actor has to work”
While some actors have a tendency to be overly precious about their work, at the end of the day, everybody has bills to pay regardless of what their job is. Paul Newman was always viewed as a star of principle and conviction, which didn’t automatically exclude him from the odd paycheque gig.
That said, it speaks volumes to his legacy and consistent excellence that the most obvious money-grabbing role of his career was the highest-grossing release of the year, won three Academy Awards and notched a further five nominations, including ‘Best Picture’.
Newman admitted that 1974’s The Towering Inferno was a “junk movie,” but it was intended as a compliment. His behind-the-scenes battles with Steve McQueen became the stuff of legend, although it shouldn’t be overlooked that even when he was taking the money and running, he was still part of a classic.
Not every commercial endeavour gets to be so fortunate, though, as Newman found out first-hand when another part he only played because of the riches on offer went down in a ball of box office flames. Comedy was never really his strongest suit, and even he wasn’t surprised when 1968’s wartime caper, The Secret War of Harry Frigg, was greeted largely with a shrug of indifference.
However, this being Newman, it was still sandwiched between success stories. His previous credit was an Oscar-nominated turn in Cool Hand Luke, and the two immediately afterwards were his ‘Best Picture’-nominated directorial effort Rachel, Rachel and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. When reflecting on the failure with Rolling Stone, he had no issues laying his cards on the table.
“It ultimately bombed, but I did that for two reasons,” he explained of Harry Frigg. “First, I thought I could pull off the character. I think when they cut the film, they took a lot of the character stuff out and left all the one-liners in. The second reason is, as I say, an actor has to work. I mean, I cannot go without working except once every four years when I find a spectacular script like Butch Cassidy. I thought I’d have fun with Harry Frigg, and I did, to a certain degree.”
By all accounts, Newman’s main motivators behind headlining the limp comedic flop was a combination of money and shits and giggles. He knew it was never going to be viewed as one of his finest hours in front of the camera, but the combination of substantial remuneration and the chance to let his hair down and play a character who wasn’t as stoic and serious as the ones that brought him so much acclaim throughout his career was too lucrative to turn down.
On the plus side, his wife Joanne Woodward thought it was “very funny,” so there’s that.
