Hawks on Hawks

27. John Wayne

144 27 Johnwayne John Wayne represents more force, more power, than anybody else on the screen. And I think both Ford and I succeeded in making pretty good scenes with him. When Ford was dying, we used to discuss how tough it was to make a good western without Wayne. Now, that’s just our two viewpoints about it, but maybe you can tell me somebody who’s made westerns as good as Wayne has. Cary Grant and I have been talking about him doing a western playing a consumptive dentist. He’d like very much to play it. We’ve already mapped out the best scenes. But he wouldn’t be quite the same as if Wayne did it. If Duke heard I was going to do a western without him, he’d call up and say, “Can’t you write me in?” You were talking before about personalities and actors—is Wayne as much of an actor as he is a personality? Well, John Wayne is pretty goddam good, or he wouldn’t have been leading things for so long. They don’t think of him as being an actor, but Christ, he’s a damn good actor. He does everything, and he makes you believe it. He’s just a different form of an actor. A Broadway actor would be inclined to look down his nose at him, but by the very number of pictures he’s made and the fact that people still like him, I’d say Wayne has to be pretty real. His professionalism really shines through when you see him with a young performer who isn’t very smooth, such as a couple of the actors in Rio Lobo. Jennifer O’Neill couldn’t begin to hold the screen with Wayne. Oh, she was a damn fool. But Wayne helped Angie Dickinson so much in Rio Bravo. He helped Charlene Holt in El Dorado. You start with the idea that if you don’t get a damn good actor with Wayne, he’s going to blow him right off the screen, not just by the fact that he’s good, but by his power, his strength. John wayne 145 What if you’ve got a man or a woman who you know is not going to be able to handle Wayne on the screen? Then you’re out of luck. There wasn’t much I could do in the picture you’re talking about. The two boys in there just couldn’t handle Wayne. And the girl was no good, so we were out of luck. Most of the leading men today, the younger men especially, are a little bit effeminate. There’s no toughness. McQueen and Eastwood don’t compare with Wayne. Wayne has a reputation for being a very tough guy with directors. He is tough. The only people who could handle him were Ford and myself. Why is that? Ford put Wayne in Stagecoach. I put him in Red River. Wayne did a John Wayne in Rio Lobo—he “represents more force, more power, than anybody else on the screen”—last of their five films together. Hawks on Hawks 146 hell of a job in Red River, and Jack Ford said, “I never knew the big son of a bitch could act.” So every time I made a picture with Wayne, Ford would come around and watch. And as a matter of fact, after Red River, Ford began putting Wayne into more complex parts in his own films. He made She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, where he played an old man, and he was brilliant. But Red River was the first time he played somebody older than his years. Yes. In Red River, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to play an old man, and I said, “Duke, you’re going to be one pretty soon, why don’t you get some practice?” He said, “How the hell am I gonna play one?” “Well,” I said, “watch me getting up. That’s the way to play it.” Ford said he didn’t know Wayne could act, but I said he could do anything if you’ve got enough guts to tell him what to do. Do you think Ford condescended to Wayne? He treated him a little like a beginner. He treated him quite terribly, from what I’ve heard. Oh, yes. But Wayne adored him. Ford...