The role Kurt Russell was convinced would be his last: “If nobody likes it, tough shit”
Every actor goes through a crisis of confidence at least once in their career, and for Kurt Russell, it had nothing to do with acting at all. Instead, when his dreams of pursuing baseball as a full-time vocation were shattered, he was left with no other choice but to follow the only other thing he knew how to do.
He wouldn’t have been the first child star to turn their back on Hollywood after reaching an age when they’re faced with the decision to stick or twist, but his mind was made up for him in 1973 when a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder made it perfectly clear that it was either acting or bust.
Russell was only in his early 20s at the time, and having spent his formative years as the face of countless family-friendly Disney flicks, becoming a close confidant and trusted advisor of Walt Disney in the process, he knew he needed to reinvent himself. He was too old to keep making the films that established him, but he was also too unproven elsewhere to have his pick of the parts.
After playing Dexter Riley for the third time in 1975’s The Strongest Man in the World, he wouldn’t be seen on the big screen again until Robert Zemeckis’ Used Cars was released five years later. His leading role in the latter suggested that Russell had the potential to enjoy longevity, but it wasn’t the first time he’d shown those chops.
His previous credit before Used Cars was monumental for several reasons. He may not have been too keen on making it in the first place, but the made-for-television film Elvis earned the actor the first major awards season recognition of his career, and united him with his soon-to-be muse, John Carpenter, for the first time.
However, after enduring a relatively barren spell in front of the camera and having his future in baseball ripped away from him away from it, he didn’t start the production in the best mindset. In a 1986 interview with Frank Lovece, Russell confessed that if critics and audiences slated his performance as the titular legend, he would have happily washed his hands of the industry for good.
“By the time I got to Elvis, mentally, I was prepared to blow it out,” he shared. “I said, ‘I’m doing this exactly the way I want to do it. If nobody likes it, tough shit, that’s the way it goes.’ If everybody hates me, I’m gone, out of the business. But it didn’t work out that way.”
A Primetime Emmy nomination for ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie’ underlined that Russell’s work as ‘The King’ had the opposite effect of what he was half-expecting, and taking top billing in a feature that was also shortlisted for ‘Best Limited or Anthology Series or Television Film’ indicated that doing things the way he wanted to do them had paid off handsomely.
The best was still to come, too, after his instant friendship with Carpenter served as the catalyst for one of the most formidable and iconic actor/director partnerships of the 1980s.
