The one thing Paul Newman hated about Hollywood: “I don’t dig it, I’m bewildered by it”
Most actors would like nothing more than to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood for a set of very obvious reasons: it pays more, the roles of choice are usually better, and it’s easier to get passion projects off the ground, to name just three. Paul Newman had all of those benefits, but breathing in the industry’s most rarefied air wasn’t all sunshine and roses.
In fact, he was in a better position than most of his contemporaries because he was one of those elusive double threats. Not only was Newman among the most famous faces in Tinseltown and one of its most popular leading men, but he was also one of his generation’s most talented performers who was a regular fixture on the awards season circuit.
It was an enviable place to be in, even if it came with its own set of doubts and insecurities. For one thing, Newman despised the fact that being a handsome man with piercing blue eyes was often weaponised against him, which was fair enough when there wasn’t much he could do about it. He felt it was reductive for the media to brand him as little more than a pretty face, although his ongoing string of Academy Award nominations helped soften that particular blow.
Another unavoidable part of being a movie star is that it brings increased fame and reduced privacy. Being a recognisable actor means the chances of being stopped on the street and accosted by the paparazzi skyrocket, while the chances of living a relatively normal, quiet, and unassuming life go out the window.
Newman was the kind of guy who wanted to turn up on set, shoot a film, and then return to his usual day-to-day activities. However, being incredibly well-known means it’s a lot easier said than done. Some actors love to bask in the warm glow of public adulation, but he definitely wasn’t one of them.
“So, who made the rule an actor is a servant to his public? I don’t dig it, I’m bewildered by it,” he told Roger Ebert. “I refuse to give autographs; it hints of arrogance.” The only thing Newman asked of his celebrity status was “that people treat me as they would a stranger,” which not many of them paid much attention to.
“Joanne [Woodward] and I will be in the restaurant, and some guy at the next table will say, ‘Come on over and join us’. ‘Thanks all the same’, I say, ‘But I’m having dinner with my wife,'” he raged. “To which the guy warmly replies: ‘Go fuck yourself’. Well, some people have that ability to be a star offstage. They think, I guess, they’re entitled to a kind of royalty. I cherish what little privacy I have.”
Privacy has always been in short supply for the most vaunted names in cinema, and it was comfortably Newman’s least favourite thing about his chosen profession.
