The role Kurt Russell wouldn’t reprise under any circumstances: “Could I do it again? No”
Kurt Russell has been in a lot of movies throughout his long career.
That might even be an understatement: there are indeed over 100 of them. The official number is hard to delineate, but the 74-year-old has played just about every character, from a jovial Santa Claus in Christmas Chronicles to an inspiring hockey coach in Miracle.
Probably his most iconic role, though, is Snake Plissken – the one-eyed, sharp-tongued, no-nonsense anti-hero and master thief from Escape from New York back in 1981, and later Escape from LA in ’96. And of course, the original was helmed by none other than John Carpenter.
Back then, the studio bosses were pushing Carpenter to cast one of the usual tough-guy suspects as Plissken. You know the type – Tommy Lee Jones, Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, even Patrick Swayze got a mention. It was like being trapped in some macho casting merry-go-round. But Carpenter wasn’t having it. He just knew none of them were quite the right fit.
Instead, his mind wandered to the 29-year-old actor, Russell. It was a bold call, as he had no experience getting gritty on-screen. His most well-known work was the Disney movie, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. But the pair had worked together before, and Carpenter was willing to back him for the big action project.
In 2013, the pair celebrated 17 years since they last worked together on Escape from LA; chatting to Empire, they laughed through delirious anecdotes and reacted to the news of the Snake Plissken reboot, which neither of them was involved with (eventually, this will teeter into nothingness, though a fan movie, Escape from New Jersey, did the rounds in 2010).
Russell, considering how well-positioned he might be to take on the role once more, winced. “Could I do it again? No.” Ever the problem solver, Carpenter piped up with a different suggestion: “He could do Old Snake!” This idea didn’t quite sit well with Russell, who insisted, “I never wanted to do Snake old. If you’re going to do him, do him young. He’s one of those guys.”
Russell had to face the same dilemma every actor comes up against sooner or later, wondering if they’re getting a bit too old for a role. It’s one of those timeless debates. We’ve all cringed watching 30-somethings try to pass for teenagers in school dramas. In the end, though, Russell was doing the right thing. Knowing when to bow out isn’t easy.
Looking at the prospect of a future reboot, Russell continued: “They got people working on trying to put together Escape From New York, and they don’t know where they’re going with it. It’s been done! Guess what, guys, it’s been done. And there’s nothing wrong with it. But what you need now is what John told them then: you need a good young guy who gets the character.”
Here we have Russell, over a decade ago, understanding a fundamental truth about the industry, one that many film executives today still can’t grasp. A reboot is often a bad idea. Scratch that, a reboot is always a bad idea. Long live Snake Plissken.
