Why Steve McQueen said he “could never make American movies”
Before the filmmaker burst onto the scene and made a name for himself crafting unflinching dramas that bathed in the warm glow of acclaim, common sense indicated that there was only room in the annals of cinema history for one Steve McQueen, and it wasn’t the British writer and director.
Of course, one of Hollywood’s most legendary stars carried the exact same moniker, and while there’s nothing the United Kingdom’s McQueen could do about that, at least he didn’t come carrying the added – and some would say insurmountable – pressure of trying to make it as an actor.
Instead, McQueen focused his attentions behind the camera, making waves from the second his uncompromising debut Hunger was released. Zeroing in on the hunger strike of IRA member Bobby Sands, Michael Fassbender was on towering form, with the pair making magic yet again when they reunited for the provocative, compelling Shame.
From there, his career reached its highest point when 12 Years a Slave recouped its budget almost ten times over at the box office, placed him on the shortlist for ‘Best Director’ at the Academy Awards, and won three Oscars from nine nominations in total, including ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and ‘Best Picture’. It’s not unreasonable to assume Hollywood was banging down his door in the aftermath, but McQueen simply wasn’t interested.
Plenty of fast-rising directors have been hand-picked by a major studio to work with lavish budgets and starry ensemble casts, but for McQueen, the Americanised version of cinema was never one he found too appealing, as he explained to The Guardian.
“I could never make American movies, they like happy endings,” he said. “I made Shame in America, but it’s not a Hollywood movie. I’m about challenging people. Like, properly challenging them and their assumptions. Audiences make their minds up about people they see on screen, just like they do in real life. That’s what fascinates me in film.”
His statement didn’t ring entirely true in the years to come, though, especially when his next film was about as Hollywood as it gets. Armed with a budget north of $40 million, one of the ‘Big Five’ footing the bill in 20th Century Fox, and a cast that numbered Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Liam Neeson, Jon Bernthal, and Michelle Rodriguez among others, Widows was dripping in the trappings of Tinseltown.
Not that McQueen was forced to make any major compromises when it was another no-holds-barred story despite occupying the arena of a stylish action thriller, although the upcoming Blitz will find him back on more familiar turf. A historical drama with Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, and Stephen Graham, it’s much more in line with his previous work than anything that stands out as ‘too Hollywood’, at least by his own definition.
