The life-changing movie Kurt Russell hated making
Kurt Russell was never the same again after shooting a movie, which is just as well because he hated every second of the experience.
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Film » Cutting Room Floor
Wed 5 February 2025 19:45, UK
Starring in a movie that was beset by behind-the-scenes difficulties and tanked at the box office wouldnât be the most memorable of experiences for 99% of actors, and Kurt Russell would have been in that other percentile if a film he hated making hadnât changed his life forever.
Every performer is likely to grit their teeth and persevere through a production they donât enjoy, and the blow can often be softened should the end product be greeted with rapturous acclaim and turn a tidy profit. Although he wouldnât dream of going public, it seems likely that a lot of Russellâs dissatisfaction stemmed from being placed in the middle of a battle in which he couldnât â or shouldnât â take sides.
Having originally met when they worked together on the 1968 caper The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, Russell and Goldie Hawn reunited and reconnected almost two decades later when they were cast in Jonathan Demmeâs romantic dramedy Swing Shift, where their characters strike up a romance after the latterâs Kay Walsh falls for the formerâs Lucky Lockhart when her husband heads off to serve in World War II.
It shouldnât have been a movie that caused friction between the cast and the filmmaker, but it was. As the lead and executive producer of the picture, Hawn had plenty of input on Swing Shift. She drafted in legendary Chinatown scribe Robert Towne to write new scenes to bump up her screentime at the expense of co-star Christine Lahiti, who ended up on the Oscars shortlist for âBest Supporting Actressâ anyway.
That caused Swing Shiftâs budget to swell and its release date to be pushed back by months, leaving Demme enraged. He didnât want anything to do with the reshoots because he believed it compromised his creative vision. He lobbied to have the listing of âA Jonathan Demme Filmâ removed from the credits, and original writer Nancy Dowd disowned the project in favour of the pseudonym Rob Morton.
âThere was a portion of the footage that I didnât care for and didnât want to shoot, but I did it anyway,â he said at the time. âIâm not the kind of person who goes around saying, âThey destroyed my work!â and Iâm not telling you that the original version was better; Iâm just saying that I liked it, and thatâs the version I would have liked to stand behind.â
Russell and Hawnâs romance blossomed during the shooting of Swing Shift, putting him in the unfortunate scenario of making a movie that was partially disowned by its director for reasons that were caused largely by his newfound paramour. When asked to reflect on the experience by Entertainment Weekly, all he could offer was a succinct âDidnât like it,â which says more than three words normally would.
Related Topics
Jonathan DemmeKurt Russell
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