The two movies Paul Newman hated with all his heart: “His idea of a giant sell out”
There’s a lot to love about Paul Newman. He’s not only an iconic member of Hollywood’s golden generation of actors, but he’s also a charitable fellow, a motor racing champion and a maker of supreme salad dressings.
It’s a set of circumstances that could land Newman as one of the most beloved actors of all time. A handsome rogue with a penchant for altruism is a dangerous combination. It means that, in general, there is very little reason to doubt his viewpoint on certain things, especially his own filmography.
It’s a stacked resume, too. Newman had his hand in some of the most influential movies of the 20th century, with roles in Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid confirming his position as an icon of the 1960s before he grew into an array of different roles including a burst of 21st century performances in Road to Perdition and, if you ask any young child at the time, his career-defining role in Cars.
Like any actor, there will be a tiered system for the movies he loved and loathed on that list of films. The majority of which will sit firmly in the “work” category. But there will be a few that sit on either side of the bell curve. Playing Harper in The Drowning Pool was always the gig Newman adored most: “I simply adore that character,” he said. “Because it will accommodate any kind of actor’s invention. It’s great to go to work, because you know you’re going to have a lot of fun that day.”
But, equally, two movies fell way short of what Newman considered to be an enjoyable piece of work. The first title came early on in his career and was such a poor movie that he tried to convince audiences not to see it. The Silver Chalice has since gone down in history as one of the more uncomfortable moments of an actor’s career, with Newman once even telling fans he would apologise every night the movie was shown.
In the book Paul Newman: A Life, Newman said of The Silver Chalice, “I was horrified and traumatised when I saw the film. I was sure my acting career had begun and ended with the same picture. It was god-awful. It’s kind of a distinction to say I was in the worst film to be made in the entirety of the 1950s.” The picture failed to achieve anything. It was neither a critical nor a commercial success, and it must go down as one of the darker spots in the actor’s career.
Another spot, though, acts a little differently. The Towering Inferno is one of the more recognisable credits on Newman’s discography. It was even comparatively commercially successful. Starring alongside heavyweight Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, the picture delivered on a lot of variables, but according to Ethan Hawke, it reperesented a nadir in his artistic life. A movie that the affable star simply detested making.
Instead, the movie was more simply a paycheque to be cashed. When explaining his feelings towards the picture, Hawke said, “He hated doing Towering Inferno. That was his idea of a giant sellout. You see him in physical pain in that movie. But, it’s still a job. You still have to put food on the table.”
Within these two movies, we see the depths of Newman’s career. One is a schlocky 1950s attempt at an epic, while the other is one of the more beloved action movies of the 20th century, but both acted as a black mark in the history of one of Hollywood’s brightest lights.
