The only cult classic Kurt Russell was banned from starring in: “Obviously not the boy next door”
Some actors become synonymous with a particular character, others become inextricably linked to a certain genre, and then there’s Kurt Russell, who occupies a niche position as being modern cinema’s reigning king of the cult classic.
He gleefully embraced the suggestion that his filmography looked like it had been piloted by a drunk driver, and it’s easy to see why. While Snake Plissken is the closest thing he’s got to a career-defining role, Russell has spent six decades zagging where others would zig, building up an eclectic list of credits, many of which have fallen short of expectations before basking in the warm glow of longevity.
Cult films are impossible to predict, engineer, or make on purpose, but he must have a decent nose for it, since he’s starred in so many of them. He named Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, Used Cars, Overboard, Tombstone, and Death Proof as his cultiest cult classics, and that barely scratches the surface.
There’s also Breakdown, Escape from LA, Sky High, Soldier, Stargate, Tango & Cash, Dark Blue, and Bone Tomahawk, all of which tick at least several boxes that constitute an enduring cult favourite. He almost added one more to the list when he agreed to co-star with Michelle Pfeiffer in Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke before the prospect of wearing tights made him back out at the last second, but there was another that he was told in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t be appearing in.
Seeing as it bombed at the box office before becoming a word-of-mouth sensation and big seller on home video, before launching a sprawling media franchise that’s covered sequels, TV shows, comic books, and an impending reboot, never mind the soundtrack, nobody in their right mind would dare to say that Russell Mulcahy’s Highlander isn’t a cult classic.
In an alternate timeline, there’s a version of the film where Russell’s Connor Macleod shares the screen with Sean Connery’s Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez. Even though he’s notched his fair share of cult flicks, it’s hard to imagine him in Highlander. And yet, he was cast in the lead role, and as revealed in a 1986 profile on co-writer Gregory Widen in Cinefantastique, the reason he dropped out was because Goldie Hawn told him to.
Instead, scrambling to find a new face for Highlander, Mulcahy recruited Christopher Lambert, who was relatively unknown outside of his native France. “Lambert has an interesting animal look to him,” Widen said, approving of the replacement. “And Mulcahy is the classic example of a visually kinetic director. Mulcahy’s made it bigger and better in a way I can respond to.”
Hawn must have seen something Russell didn’t, although it did turn out to be the right call. Highlander was filmed between April and August 1985, and with a gap in his schedule having opened up, the actor reunited with his filmmaking muse, John Carpenter, to shoot Big Trouble in Little China before the end of the year.
The obvious downside is that the latter actually flopped harder in cinemas than the movie he quit on Hawn’s insistence, but if he’d played Macleod, then there would be no Jack Burton, which is a decent compromise.
