Stanley Kubrick’s favourite actor of all time: ‘You could never take your eyes off him’
Over the course of his illustrious career, American auteur Stanley Kubrick continuously pushed the boundaries of the cinematic medium and achieved new artistic heights. No matter which genre Kubrick set out to tackle, be it horror with The Shining or science fiction with 2001: A Space Odyssey, you knew that you were witnessing the work of a master filmmaker whose vision was overwhelmingly powerful.
Like many other great pioneers of cinema, Kubrick never really had a formal education in film studies. Instead, he started off as a photographer and showed signs of talent even in his early days. In addition, he attended screenings of films by Max Ophüls and Elia Kazan, among other visionaries, learning how to formulate his own idea of cinema, which he eventually managed to put forward.
By 1951, Kubrick had begun releasing his own projects, making the short films Flying Padre and Day of the Fight before creating his first feature, Fear and Desire, one year later. The director despised his debut, calling it “a bumbling amateur film exercise,” before trying to burn the negatives, yet there was no doubt that it was a formative success for his career, giving him the inspiration to make The Seafarers and The Killing in 1955 and 1956.
Once The Killing was complete, Kubrick’s first critical success, the director found himself in an extremely advantageous position and was given the free rein to adapt Humphrey Cobb’s WWI tale Paths of Glory. Casting Kirk Douglas in the lead role, Kubrick went on to make one of the finest war movies ever made and perhaps his greatest ever film, creating a career-long relationship with Douglas that would take him onto bigger and better things.
Kubrick was always looking to move on to new projects and traverse the landscape of uncharted territory, however, and rarely worked with the same cast on multiple projects, with the notable exceptions of Douglas, Peter Sellers and Sterling Hayden, who each managed to get the opportunity to collaborate with Kubrick on two productions. Elsewhere, Kubrick had the opportunity to work with such icons as Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Nicole Kidman, Shelley Duvall and Matthew Modine.
Among the films that influenced him the most, he always cited the directorial abilities as well as the acting work of Charlie Chaplin as a source of inspiration. However, the actor whose works he recommended to his own cast members was the one he considered to be one of the greatest acting talents in the history of cinema – James Cagney.
His love for the actor goes back to a conversation with none other than Steven Spielberg, who was initially disappointed by the over-the-top performance of Jack Nicholson. Discussing his thoughts with Kubrick, Spielberg was asked to name his own favourite actors. After he was done, Kubrick immediately asked him, “Where was James Cagney up on that list?” and explained that Spielberg hadn’t enjoyed Nicholson’s performance only because he did not admire the work of Cagney.
Kubrick absolutely loved Cagney’s impeccable talent of delivering exaggerated performances while still maintaining the central dramatic power of the roles. In fact, Nicholson wasn’t the only actor to draw inspiration from Cagney in a Stanley Kubrick film. Malcolm McDowell, the star of A Clockwork Orange, also revealed that Kubrick liked the fact that McDowell considered Cagney to be one of the greats.
Speaking to The Guardian, McDowell reflected: “James Cagney was the greatest actor who ever graced the screen. Bar none. Bar none! You could never take your eyes off Jim Cagney – and that was never more true than in his film Yankee Doodle Dandy”.
Kubrick wasn’t the only director who enjoyed Cagney’s art, with other filmmakers such as Clint Eastwood also noting their appreciation for the Oscar-winning actor, once stating: “Movies were invented for Jimmy Cagney, and he was invented for the movies. A perfect match”.
