The Oscar-winning movie Paul Newman refused to star in: “I have no flexibility below the ass”
In 1968, a Broadway adaptation starring an actress making her big screen debut took Hollywood by storm. It became the highest-grossing film of the year in the US and was rewarded the following year with eight Oscar nominations, including one win for Barbra Streisand’s star-making performance. However, the movie didn’t star Paul Newman, then fresh off his own Oscar nomination for Cool Hand Luke, despite the producer’s best efforts to tempt the beloved star to come aboard.
The origin of this all-singing, all-dancing picture goes back to 1963, when the Broadway production opened and first shot Streisand to musical theatre stardom. That same year, she won the Grammy Award for album of the year and was justifiably best known as a singer. In fact, her only acting experience before being cast in Funny Girl, a biographical musical of burlesque comedian Fanny Brice, was her role as Miss Marmelstein in the 1961-63 musical, I Can Get It for You Wholesale.
Naturally, Streisand’s undeniable charisma shone through to Broadway producer Ray Stark, who was also Brice’s son-in-law. He believed the young star was ideal to play his mother-in-law, and after the Broadway show proved to be a roaring success with sell-out shows and a hit soundtrack, he also felt she was the only woman to play Brice in the big screen adaptation. Hollywood, however, didn’t feel the same – at least, not initially.
“I just felt she was too much a part of Fanny, and Fanny was too much a part of Barbra to have it go to someone else,” Stark said at the time. To his chagrin, though, Columbia Pictures pushed for Shirley MacLaine to take over the role, supposedly because it was worried Streisand’s Jewish heritage might limit her mass appeal. Luckily, Streisand and MacLaine were friends, and the Terms of Endearment star had no intention of usurping her pal’s iconic role. Stark eventually gave Columbia an ultimatum: if it didn’t cast Streisand, he wouldn’t allow the film to be made at all. The studio relented.
When it came to casting Brice’s love interest, the gambler Nicky Arnstein, a who’s who of Hollywood’s biggest names were considered: Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, Sean Connery, and James Garner were in the running. Frank Sinatra reportedly agreed to play the part, but only if more songs were added to give him a bigger showcase, while Stark favoured Cary Grant.
Amid this casting minefield, though, an offer went out to Newman, whose response was both hilarious and typical of the laconic, down-to-earth star. He was flattered that Stark and director William Wyler thought of him for the part, so he wrote them a letter to let them down gently – and give them a belly laugh or two in the process.
“The truth of the matter is that I can’t sing a note,” Newman admitted, “and as for that monster, the dance, suffice it to say that I have no flexibility below the ass at all. I even have difficulty proving the paternity of my six children.”
Ultimately, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif was cast as Arnstein, which caused several ripples of controversy. When the Six-Day War between Israel and Egypt erupted in June ’67, executives baulked and wanted to fire Sharif, but Wyler and Streisand threatened to walk away if that came to pass. Then, a publicity still of Shariff in a love scene with the Jewish Streisand caused a ruckus in the Egyptian press, and there were even calls to revoke his citizenship. In the end, though, he stayed in the movie and did a superb job, sharing such intense on-screen chemistry with Streisand that it translated into a real-life affair.
