The one actor Kurt Russell refused to be upstaged by: “Fuck, man, this guy’s good”
One of the most iconic actors to have never been nominated for an Academy Award, Kurt Russell hasn’t needed trophies and accolades to go down in history as a legend of the silver screen.
The king of the cult classic, the actor has been working for over 60 years, making his screen debut by kicking Elvis Presley in It Happened At the World’s Fair before becoming one of Walt Disney’s most valuable young stars. Less of a professional relationship than a surrogate father/son bond, the two will forever be synonymous after Russell’s name entered folklore as the final thing Disney ever wrote down.
Things changed forever when he met his third major influence and career-defining creative partner, though: Russell’s first project with John Carpenter rewarded him with his first major awards recognition when his titular turn in Elvis got him on the Primetime Emmy shortlist for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Special’.
A Golden Globe nod for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in Silkwood is the remainder of Russell’s awards season contributions, not that it defines him. Instead, Russell became the cool, charismatic, and charming hero of countless films like Escape from New York, The Thing, Death Proof, Big Trouble in Little China, Tombstone, Tango & Cash, and Breakdown, making him one of the industry’s enduring cult heroes.
Russell has never come across as an actor who treats themselves or their profession with stone-faced seriousness, and that laconic approach to the business has been his stock in trade for decades. However, everybody has a competitive streak, and the star was determined not to be upstaged by the one actor who would never let him hear the end of it.
In the streaming series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Russell and his son Wyatt made small screen history as the first father and son duo to play the same character in a TV show during different time periods. It wasn’t the first time they’d done it after they both embodied the protagonist of Paul WS Anderson’s sci-fi actioner Soldier at different ages in 1998, but things were different the second time around after Wyatt grew up and got into the family business.
“We were doing two different crews, and I said, ‘I’m going to check out and see what Wyatt’s group was doing,” Russell told Deadline of sneaking down to see how his kid’s version of Lee Shaw compared to his. “I found myself watching this actor, and I remember thinking, ‘Fuck, man, this guy’s good’. I better get my game going here because this can’t fall down when it gets to my part of it.”
Every actor requires a competitive streak to succeed, and Russell had no choice but to bring his A-game to his Legacy of Monsters scenes to avoid being shown up by his own flesh and blood. He’d never hear the end of it from Wyatt if he dropped the ball, forcing him to show the next generation how it’s done.
