The real reason Gene Wilder never made another movie after 1991: “That put me off”
There are some movie stars who were once everywhere and then suddenly vanish from the face of the earth, with an inescapable presence that suddenly fades into nothing.
Some might disappear because they hit the end of their tether with the business of filmmaking itself, tiring of the long hours on set and preferring to settle down with what they’ve achieved and observe from afar. For others, work dries up and their career is not sustainable in the same way, no longer booking roles that are interesting to them, so they choose to quit instead of compromising on the kinds of projects they want to make.
For Gene Wilder, his absence from the industry was not for any of these commonly cited reasons, and instead fed up with one issue in Hollywood that made him feel completely uninspired and unmotivated to act.
Wilder was an icon of his generation, cracking his career on the stage and breaking new soil with his hostage role in the one and only outlaw drama Bonnie and Clyde. It was a pivotal moment for the industry too, as filmmaking was flipped on its head, expanding the horizon for the creative risks that could be helmed with excitement.
However, perhaps his long-standing collaborative relationship with Mel Brooks and his wife, Gilda Radner, was the boon and bane of his popularity, which resulted in the creation of comedies under various genres like The Producers, which was a musical, Blazing Saddles, a western, and Young Frankenstein, a horror comedy. His fame was inescapable; he became an emblem of the laugh-out-loud scene, even as he tried to find a seat at other tables, and was met with applause and smiles for every creative endeavour he embarked on.
However, while audiences might have been begging for more from him, after a 1991 release, the actor suddenly disappeared from the cinematic realm, making it his final film, and picked up the sharpest tool in the shed: a pen. When discussing this, the actor had a very specific reason for his absence in the movies, saying, “The swearing and the loud, the bombing, and after a while, they were dirty. And once in a while, there was a nice, good film, but not very many… If something comes along that’s really good and I think I would be good for it, I’d be happy to do it… But then I didn’t want to do the kind of junk I was seeing.”
The actor then expanded on the specific projects that he absolutely did not want to be associated with, saying, “I didn’t want to do 3D, for instance. I didn’t want to do ones where it’s just bombing and loud and swearing. So much swearing going on. If someone says ‘Ah, go fuck yourself’, well, if it came from a meaningful place, I’d understand it. But if you go to some movies, can’t they just stop and talk, just talk, instead of swearing? That put me off a lot.”
In many ways, Wilder’s reasoning for staying away from the movies predicted everything that is currently wrong with the industry, with meaning slowly draining from most films being released as high-action and speed and green screens favoured over substance. Perhaps he was onto something before everyone else, seeing some worrying future that nobody else could quite yet put a finger on and making the wise decision to stay far away from it.
