“Say no more”: How Paul Newman was forced into making ‘A New Kind of Love’
Throughout his Hollywood career, Paul Newman wasn’t usually someone who could be forced into doing anything he didn’t want to do. From the time he made The Hustler in 1961 to his death in 2008, Newman was a star whose piercing eyes and effortlessly cool demeanour made him someone men wanted to be, and women wanted to be with. The actor was always quick to point out that he only had eyes for one woman, though: his wife Joanne Woodward. Amusingly, she was the only person who held sway over Newman’s choices except him, and even though he tried to resist it, there was one time he had to give in to the old adage, “Happy wife, happy life.”
Newman and Woodward first crossed paths in 1952 in a talent agent’s office in New York City. She was a 22-year-old aspiring leading lady, and he was a 27-year-old hopeful leading man dressed in a pristine seersucker suit. Woodward later joked that he “looked like an ad for an ice cream soda” and admitted it wasn’t quite love at first sight for her.
However, Newman was smitten, and when they worked together on a stage production later that year, he worked hard to win her over. “She was modern and independent,” the star reminisced in Paul Newman: A Life. “I was shy, a bit conservative. It took me a long time to persuade her that I wasn’t as dull as I looked.” Unfortunately for the couple, there was a glaring problem with them getting together – Newman was already married with two young children.
It took until Newman experienced some success with his first movie, Somebody Up There Likes Me, before he finally admitted to his wife Jackie that he was in love with Woodward. He was wracked with guilt over what this would do to Jackie, but he couldn’t ignore his feelings any longer. To his chagrin, though, Jackie refused to agree to a divorce, and it would take two more years before she’d finally relent. 1958 was, therefore, a huge year for the couple: they wed in January, starred in their first film together (The Long, Hot Summer), and welcomed their first of three kids.
In order to raise their children – and Newman’s kids from his previous marriage – Woodward took some time away from acting only a year after she’d won an Oscar for her role in The Three Faces of Eve. In this period, Newman’s star only continued to rise with defining movies like Hud, but Woodward slowly realised she didn’t want to completely give up her own career to be a mum. She reportedly tried to convince Newman to star in a couple of projects with her and even branded him “selfish” when he refused to make one that would almost certainly have been greenlit with his signature alone.
By the time a script for a romantic comedy entitled A New Kind of Love came Woodward’s way, though, she was determined to make her husband see things her way. He told Rolling Stone that she had read the script and said, “Gee, this is kind of fun. Why don’t you read it?” So, he read the script and reported back, “Well, I don’t think it’s fun. I don’t think it’s anything.” A crestfallen Woodward said, “I was thinking we might do it together,” to which he fobbed her off by saying, “No, you do it, and I’ll watch and clap soundlessly from the wings.”
This flippant, dismissive response must have been like a red flag to a bull for Woodward at that time. Newman claimed she immediately launched into a rant that began, “You son of a bitch!” before veering into an impassioned takedown of how he had treated her career in the last few years. “I’ve made my career subservient to yours,” Newman claimed she railed. “I’ve raised your family, and not only my children and your children, but your children from another marriage!”
A stunned Newman admitted that he soon cottoned on to what was happening. A New Kind of Love wasn’t just any film for Woodward; it didn’t matter whether it was “good” or not. Instead, it symbolised what he was willing to do for his wife, the woman who had sacrificed her own career to enable him to rise to the top of the Hollywood mountain. Finally understanding the situation, Newman quipped, “Say no more, love. I’m really anxious to do it. I’m really chafing at the bit.” He grinned, “And that’s how that project got off the ground. The family wash.”
Ultimately, Newman still didn’t think A New Kind of Love was any classic – and the critics generally seemed to agree. It didn’t matter, though, because it had achieved its purpose – it rewired how Newman thought about their careers working hand in hand. Five years later, he made his directorial debut with Rachel, Rachel and cast his wife as the lead, and they would work together several more times in the subsequent decades.
