The role that saved Paul Newman’s career: “I really thought I’d never be in another movie”
It might sound counterintuitive, but talent will only get an actor so far. Succeeding in cinema often requires favour, good fortune, and more than a little luck, with Paul Newman admitting that his legendary silver screen career may not have come to pass if it weren’t for a single role that reinvigorated his passion.
He wasn’t a newcomer even though he didn’t make his feature debut until 1954’s dismal historical epic The Silver Chalice. Newman had cut his teeth on the stage, appearing in multiple Broadway productions and earning early notices that pegged him as one of theatre’s brightest young stars.
It was inevitable that he’d make the jump to movies sooner rather than later, but he couldn’t have picked a worse project with which to do it. The Silver Chalice may have landed an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Original Score’, but that was about the only thing worth highlighting from a thunderously dull period piece that Newman came to despise with a burning passion.
He effectively disowned the film and even made an unintentionally hilarious faux pas when it premiered on television. The star took out an ad urging people not to watch his first theatrically released performance, which backfired spectacularly, and the curiosity factor generated by Newman telling people it was so terrible only served to encourage people to watch it.
Following his ill-fated debut, Newman was absent from cinema for the entirety of 1955. Instead, having watched his first taste of Hollywood go down in flames, he retreated to Broadway to tackle the part of Glenn Griffin in Joseph Hayes’ The Desperate Hours. Shorn of the lavish bells and whistles attached to The Silver Chalice, focusing on character reignited his passion for performing.
After his brief sabbatical from cinema, Newman returned with a vengeance. He won strong notices for his sophomore outing, Someone Up There Likes Me, where he played the middleweight boxer, Rocky Graziano. As he explained to his longtime friend, AE Hotchner, turning his back on Tinseltown for an immediate return to the stage was exactly what he needed to avoid the ignominy of seeing his movie career being over before it even had a chance to get started.
“It’s funny now, but after that debacle, I really thought I’d never be in another movie, honestly,” he confessed. “My confidence was shot, and an actor without confidence is like a canoe up a creek without a paddle. I was grateful I was able to get that part on Broadway in The Desperate Hours. Tell you the truth, I thought that would be the only way for me: Broadway stuff.”
Newman’s confidence had been battered so badly in The Silver Chalice that he had almost convinced himself he wasn’t meant to be a Hollywood actor. Fortunately, a shift in direction and an avoidance of anything other than character-driven parts in grounded pictures shifted that perception and opened the doors for one of American cinema’s greatest-ever filmographies.
