The Stanley Kubrick movie John Wayne was approached for but “dismissed it immediately”
Even though they were both renowned for being the most notable purveyors of their chosen discipline at around the same time, Stanley Kubrick and John Wayne couldn’t have been more different on every level.
The former was keen to continue pushing the boundaries of cinema, gaining attention and notoriety for his laser-focused, precision-engineered, and meticulous approach to the medium. The latter, meanwhile, was happy to remain firmly in his chosen sandbox without showing the slightest inclination to move outside of it.
‘The Duke’ stuck to his guns to such an extent he became increasingly disillusioned with what Hollywood was becoming, whereas Kubrick was one of the auteurs who rose to prominence and changed the face of celluloid through little else than sheer creativity, imagination, force of will, and desire to tell precisely the stories they wanted in exactly the way they wanted to tell them.
They do say opposites attract, though, but Kubrick had no such luck when he considered Wayne for a key role in 1964’s sensational satirical classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It might be a showcase for the chameleonic talents of Peter Sellers first and foremost, but the opportunity was there for the taking were the iconic face of the classic Western interested in taking on another of its most memorable characters.
Major T.J. Kong became a part of history when the unforgettable shot of the gung-ho Army officer riding an H-bomb to his doom became a defining slice of cinematic iconography, but Kubrick was originally keen to have Sellers play the part. Even though he was already utilising his comic talents to embody multiple different personas, the filmmaker believed there was room for at least one more.
However, a combination of Sellers spraining his ankle and his perceived inability to master a thick Texan accent had Kubrick considering other avenues, which is where Wayne came in. As co-writer Terry Southern revealed in the book Backstory 3: Interviews with Screenwriters of the 60s (per Medium), when Sellers was ruled out, the director “wanted an authentic John Wayne.”
Because the role “had been written with Wayne as the model,” where better to go than directly to the source? Unfortunately, Southern revealed that The Duke “was approached, and dismissed it immediately”. He didn’t even bother responding to any of the overtures being made in his direction by Dr. Strangelove, and once Bonanza star Dan Blocker’s agent also passed on his client’s behalf, Slim Pickens was drafted in.
A decade later, Wayne would end up turning down Blazing Saddles because it was “too dirty” for his clean-cut persona, which means there’s a fascinating alternate timeline reality out there where the relentlessly stoic ‘Duke’ ended up starring in two of the greatest and most riotous comedy films ever made.
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