The other car crash that defined ‘Rebel Without a Cause’: “Now do I get the part?”
By the 1950s, American youth culture had evolved significantly: the post-war environment, a mixture of newfound social and economic freedom paired with an increase in media targeted towards teenagers, served to create new icons for young people to idolise, and one of these was James Dean, the excitement of his short life coming to a screeching halt when he died in a car crash at 24.
Dean’s death was one of many automobile-related accidents that occurred in 1955, as they do every year, but it took on a specific resonance. coinciding with the release of Rebel Without a Cause. In it, he starred as the archetypal rebel, dissatisfied with suburbia and longing for something more, turning into a symbol of cool insouciance, living for himself no matter the consequences.
However, that wasn’t the only car crash that affected the film; in fact, another (less fatal) crash occurred before filming began, and it was this that led Natalie Wood to land her supporting role as Judy, who was just 16 at the time and acting like it, too.
After drinking one too many with future Hollywood daredevil Dennis Hopper (he started young, it seems), the pair landed themselves in an accident that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While Hopper would play a small role as Goon, the part of Judy had not yet been cast, but Wood was adamant that it was going to be hers.
In an interview from 1974, the actor, who would tragically drown in 1981, revealed that director Nicholas Ray visited her in the hospital following the accident. The doctor had labelled the teen a “goddamn juvenile delinquent”, which pricked Wood’s ears right up, settling on the fact that it made her perfect for the role.
“Did you hear what he called me, Nick? He called me a goddamn juvenile delinquent! Now do I get the part?” she exclaimed, and it seemed like this did the trick. She became Judy, a role that would become one of her most iconic, even earning her a ‘Best Supporting Actress’ nomination from the Academy Awards.
This seemed to be a rare instance in which a car accident actually proved to be a beneficial happening, although soon rumours that Rebel Without a Cause was a cursed production would surface. You see, not only did Dean and Wood die in especially tragic and premature circumstances, but so did another one of the cast’s leading stars, Sal Mineo, who was stabbed to death in a robbery in 1976.
Rebel Without a Cause thus stands as an iconic piece of cinema, not just for its tale of rebellion and dissatisfaction in regards to ‘50s society, when young people were starting to form a completely different generation, full of differing beliefs and interests from their parents, but because of the aura of danger that buzzed around it in real life.
