The one role Kurt Russell was born to play: “It was really what I wanted to do”
Kurt Russell has built a career on roles that feel like they were made for him. Could anyone else have played Escape from New York’s Snake Plissken with the same tongue-in-cheek, comic-book toughness? Would another actor have given The Thing’s R J MacReady the same world-weary pathos? Could anyone else have brought Death Proof’s Stuntman Mike the same menacing bravado? Amazingly, none of these is the role a director once said Russell was born to play—and the star himself agreed.
Throughout the 1980s, there was one director Russell badly wanted to work with. However, it wasn’t just because he admired the man’s filmography. Instead, he saw him as a kindred spirit because both of them had gone through the unique experience of growing up in Hollywood. Both were child actors who made the often difficult transition into adult acting, so Russell felt they were uniquely placed to understand each other.
“I’ve always wanted to do a film with Ron,” Russell told The Baltimore Sun, referring to Ron Howard. “We never had the opportunity to work with each other. There was talk, but we never got to it.”
Howard, who came to fame as a little boy in The Andy Griffith Show and then became immortalised as Richie Cunningham in Happy Days, lived an experience that was like “looking into a mirror” for Russell, who grew up as a Disney star. “As child stars, we were treated the same,” Russell revealed. “Our personalities are different, but the circumstances were identical.” He added, “It was a very unique situation. My best friends have no concept of what my life is like, but Ronnie does. He’s had much the same experience.”
So in 1990, when Howard finally approached Russell with a project for them to do together, he jumped at the chance. The film was equal parts action thriller and family drama, and Howard wanted Russell to play Stephen McCaffrey, a hard-bitten Chicago firefighter. For an actor who often claims to love pursuits like flying, baseball, and hunting more than acting, Backdraft was like manna from heaven. At last, he could sink his teeth into a character akin to a real-life hero—a man who selflessly risks his life for strangers, doing a job most people would be too terrified to even contemplate.
“It’s the only job I’ve seen in a long, long time that I could see myself being excited enough and proud enough about,” Russell told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I worked my ass off on this.” As for finally getting to work with Howard, he nodded, “I’m thankful it took place. It was really what I wanted to do.”
From Howard’s perspective, he had cast the perfect person to play McCaffrey – even though he couldn’t land his first choice for Brian, the film’s co-lead, and Stephen’s younger brother. “I had been pursuing Tom Cruise, and Tom asked who would play the role of his older brother,” Howard revealed. “I thought Tom and Kurt would be good together.” Unfortunately, Cruise had other irons in the fire – pun well and truly intended – and had to pass on the role.
Thankfully, Cruise’s absence wasn’t felt because Russell and the rest of the cast—including William Baldwin, Scott Glenn, and Robert De Niro—all threw themselves into the shoot. They trained with real firefighters to learn how to act realistically during a blaze, while De Niro shadowed several arson investigators to sponge off their knowledge and mannerisms. Naturally, Russell was so dedicated and fearless that he impressed the firefighters, who all admired how completely he threw himself into it.
“What Kurt did during those fires scared the crap out of me,” Howard admitted, before smiling, “He was born to play this character”.
