‘City of Joy’: The “role of a lifetime” that left Patrick Swayze “beyond crushed” instead
When he touched down in the Indian city of Calcutta in 1991, Patrick Swayze’s destiny seemed clear.
For the previous several years, he had climbed the Hollywood ladder by making women swoon with his hunky romantic leads in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and men pump their fists with his action classics Road House and Point Break. To the Texas native, though, there were still parts that Hollywood seemed reticent to offer him, and that stuck in his craw.
Like many others in history who became famous for being good-looking and magnetic in mainstream box office hits, Swayze was desperate to prove that he could do more onscreen. He wanted to explore dramatically resonant material and play characters with deep flaws, where his looks and rippling abs didn’t matter. As cliché as it may sound, he wanted to prove himself as an actor as much as he was a movie star.
So, when his agent got wind that The Killing Fields director Roland Joffé was looking to cast the lead in his new drama, City of Joy, the star filled the ring with his hat. “I knew instinctively that the opportunity to work with him, on a movie that really explored the human condition, had the potential to change not only my career, but my life as well,” Swayze revealed in his memoir The Time of My Life. Unfortunately, he was only half right.
In the film, Swayze would play Max, an American surgeon seeking a spiritual awakening in Calcutta, now Kolkata, in the devastating wake of the loss of a child on his operating table. He ends up forming a bond with a local farmer, who takes him to an area locals have nicknamed the ‘City of Joy’, populated by lepers and the poor. Over time, his soul is healed by these people, who have little, yet approach every day with dignified resilience.
To a modern audience, this may sound like a trite Hollywood weepie verging on white saviour territory, but at the time, Swayze was convinced it was destined for classic status. He identified deeply with Max, a character who “was constantly battling his inner demons” while trying to improve himself at every turn. He told Joffé, “If you will have me do this movie, I will work hard. But more than that, I will give you my heart”, and he did that from day one.
The deeply committed actor worked for several days in Mother Theresa’s hospice, attending to the injured and dying, many of whom were afflicted by leprosy. At one point, he changed the dressing on a young child’s burn, which had fused with his skin, and told Entertainment Weekly, “I’m not squeamish, but working with this little kid, trying to get the bandage off him, it was incredibly painful, but his courage was inspirational.” With a poignant nod, he added, “There’s some true power to be learned in this place.”
Ultimately, City of Joy would be Swayze’s first movie after robbing banks and skydiving with Keanu Reeves. Perhaps audiences still thought of him in action mode, or maybe Joffé’s movie sounded too heavy-duty a watch, whatever the case, the film underperformed, and reviews were spliced, with many criticising its rote Hollywood elements and the Orientalist gaze. For Swayze, it was a hammer to the heart, and he couldn’t understand how his “role of a lifetime” had gone so wrong.
“I was beyond crushed,” the dejected star confessed candidly, “I really believed City of Joy was an amazing, uplifting movie that might possibly become a classic”. He was adamant that he and Joffe had made the movie they wanted to make, with “incredible performances” and “fantastic” camera work. In fact, after the shoot wrapped, Swayze remembered thinking, for the very first time, “I’d done absolutely everything I could on a movie, to the very best of my ability”.
All in all, it was a harsh reminder that sometimes, even with the best intentions, things one loves may not be agreeable for the masses.
