The movie Paul Newman always regretted never making: “I can’t seem to get anybody interested”
As one of the cinema’s most venerated living legends, one of America’s greatest-ever actors, and an accomplished and experienced director, Paul Newman shouldn’t have faced too much trouble in convincing a studio to foot the bill for his passion project, especially in his twilight years.
The Academy Award winner became increasingly selective towards the tail end of his career, when he was a lot more likely to turn his nose up at a script than sign on the dotted line. 1994 saw him star in two films in the same year for the first time since 1976, when he appeared in The Hudsucker Proxy and Nobody’s Fool, but he’d only amass another four live-action film credits before calling it quits.
Scaling back his workload made Newman a more precious commodity than ever, and since he was increasingly reticent to agree to scripts that were offered his way, there should have been at least one eager party willing to acquire one that he’d written himself, especially when it promised the kind of high-calibre lead performance that had ‘awards season contender’ written all over it.
Having acquired the rights to Glendon Swarthout’s novel, The Homesman, the Cool Hand Luke star had planned to direct and star in the adaptation. He hadn’t helmed a picture since 1987’s The Glass Menagerie, but more than ten years later, he was willing to dust off his filmmaking hat and place one foot on either side of the camera for the first time in a long time.
Newman would have played the part of George Briggs, an unscrupulous claim jumper hired by Mary Bee Cuddy to escort four women across dangerous territory to escape from the harsh and unforgiving Nebraska Territory in favour of resettling in Iowa. Reflecting on his newfound inactivity in a 2000 interview with Esquire, the icon hinted that he wasn’t interested in acting for the sake of it anymore.
“Lean stuff out there,” he grumbled. “It’s a dry, dry season.” With his pickle remaining un-tickled by the parts the studios wanted him to play, Newman was equally frustrated that nobody was willing to bite on the one he did actually want to make. “I can’t seem to get anybody interested,” he said of The Homesman. “I may have just run out of steam on it.”
Had it happened, Newman would have directed and starred in The Homesman as Briggs, with his wife and frequent collaborator, Joanne Woodward, in a key supporting role. The film did eventually happen, but he’d been dead for several years at that point, with another one of Tinseltown’s most grizzled veterans stepping in.
Essentially doing the exact same job the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid frontman had envisioned for himself, Tommy Lee Jones would co-write, direct, and take top billing in the long-awaited adaptation of Swarthout’s novel, assembling a star-studded cast that included Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, John Lithgow, James Spader, Hailee Steinfeld, Jesse Plemons, and more.
It was a well-made and well-received western, and while it’s foolish to assume that Newman’s version would be better simply because he was Paul Newman, it’s a shame that nobody gave him the chance.
