dejan
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Post by dejan on Mar 14, 2022 4:20:49 GMT -5
Great actor in general.
And more recently, of course , brought dramatic weight and authority to General Ross in the MCU.
But was also a good friend and aspiring/ actor contemporary of Reeve.
Goto 2:14 in video below:
(Tried to talk Reeve out of taking the part of Supes back in 77'! lol)
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Metallo
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Post by Metallo on Mar 14, 2022 9:10:00 GMT -5
Very sad. I saw the news yesterday. Hurt was a real pro. A real actors actor. Even in paycheck gigs he was always so good. He was looking pretty frail in Black Widow so I worried his health was taking a real downturn. I read years ago that he had cancer that had metastasized so he hung in there for a long time. It’s really impressive to see the group of people who were at Juilliard around the same general time as Reeve.
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Post by Kamdan on Mar 16, 2022 9:26:45 GMT -5
I posted about Reeve’s A&E Biography a while back with those details about Hurt and Treat Williams attempting to talk him out of accepting the role. Made me wonder if they too were on the consideration list since they matched the psychical description of Superman for the time and if they were reluctant to do it because they couldn’t see past the cursed role angle of it that was associated with George Reece’s death. Reeve was sold on it when he saw the large scale of the production and talked with Donner.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Mar 19, 2022 0:31:54 GMT -5
I was saddened to read this, as well. LOVED his work early on from "Altered States", to "Witness", and was thrilled later on when he was cast in the MCU. He never seemed like an actor who would ever phone in a performance. The connection with him and Reeve is interesting, would love to have been a fly on the wall during their conversations on Superman... and would have been interesting to have heard their reactions after it was a hit.
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Post by Kamdan on Mar 20, 2022 17:32:21 GMT -5
He never seemed like an actor who would ever phone in a performance. The connection with him and Reeve is interesting, would love to have been a fly on the wall during their conversations on Superman... and would have been interesting to have heard their reactions after it was a hit. I’m 100% sure it was just the standard “Don’t do it or you’ll be typecasted forever and you’ll end up killing yourself like George Reeves did.” Gotta remember that the mentality of comic book material was that it was kiddie fodder. Warners only saw a profit in selling the screen rights to the Salkinds and saw the whole endeavor as a disaster in the making, even when they got Brando and Hackman. They didn’t see the potential until they saw it come to together. I’m sure Hurt and Williams ate their words when they saw it realized, like many people did at that time. |
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Post by Kamdan on Mar 20, 2022 17:33:16 GMT -5
He never seemed like an actor who would ever phone in a performance. The connection with him and Reeve is interesting, would love to have been a fly on the wall during their conversations on Superman... and would have been interesting to have heard their reactions after it was a hit. I’m 100% sure it was just the standard “Don’t do it or you’ll be typecasted forever and you’ll end up killing yourself like George Reeves did.” Gotta remember that the mentality of comic book material was that it was kiddie fodder with Warners only seeing a profit in selling the screen rights to the Salkinds, seeing the whole endeavor as a disaster in the making, even when they got Brando and Hackman. They didn’t see the potential until they saw it come together. I’m sure Hurt and Williams ate their words as well because they failed to see the potential verisimilitude in the material. |
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Mar 21, 2022 0:16:55 GMT -5
He never seemed like an actor who would ever phone in a performance. The connection with him and Reeve is interesting, would love to have been a fly on the wall during their conversations on Superman... and would have been interesting to have heard their reactions after it was a hit. I’m 100% sure it was just the standard “Don’t do it or you’ll be typecasted forever and you’ll end up killing yourself like George Reeves did.” Gotta remember that the mentality of comic book material was that it was kiddie fodder with Warners only seeing a profit in selling the screen rights to the Salkinds, seeing the whole endeavor as a disaster in the making, even when they got Brando and Hackman. They didn’t see the potential until they saw it come together. I’m sure Hurt and Williams ate their words as well because they failed to see the potential verisimilitude in the material. His performance in "Dune" was pretty disappointing... but then again, the whole thing was disappointing, compared to the David Lynch (my favorite) version--- but.... in hearing about his obsession with asking a zillion questions about character, it's possible that he gave it his all each time- but it could also be that the end result still doesn't look all that impressive. Having said that.... wasn't he fantastic as Ross, even when he had only a few lines each time around? His demeanor and screen presence in those bit pieces filled the screen, for such a small part. |
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atp
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Post by atp on Mar 21, 2022 8:46:11 GMT -5
He never seemed like an actor who would ever phone in a performance. The connection with him and Reeve is interesting, would love to have been a fly on the wall during their conversations on Superman... and would have been interesting to have heard their reactions after it was a hit. I’m 100% sure it was just the standard “Don’t do it or you’ll be typecasted forever and you’ll end up killing yourself like George Reeves did.” Gotta remember that the mentality of comic book material was that it was kiddie fodder with Warners only seeing a profit in selling the screen rights to the Salkinds, seeing the whole endeavor as a disaster in the making, even when they got Brando and Hackman. They didn’t see the potential until they saw it come together. I’m sure Hurt and Williams ate their words as well because they failed to see the potential verisimilitude in the material. Reeve didn't get typecasted. The Reeve Only People were typecasted. |
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Metallo
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Post by Metallo on Mar 21, 2022 14:41:09 GMT -5
He never seemed like an actor who would ever phone in a performance. The connection with him and Reeve is interesting, would love to have been a fly on the wall during their conversations on Superman... and would have been interesting to have heard their reactions after it was a hit. I’m 100% sure it was just the standard “Don’t do it or you’ll be typecasted forever and you’ll end up killing yourself like George Reeves did.” Gotta remember that the mentality of comic book material was that it was kiddie fodder with Warners only seeing a profit in selling the screen rights to the Salkinds, seeing the whole endeavor as a disaster in the making, even when they got Brando and Hackman. They didn’t see the potential until they saw it come together. I’m sure Hurt and Williams ate their words as well because they failed to see the potential verisimilitude in the material. He wasn’t bad in Lost in Space. I don’t think he phoned it in either it’s just an absolute piece of sh!t film with uninspired directing and an awful screenplay. Even Bill Mumy and Jonathan Harris turned it down. Not even Gary Oldman came out of it looking golden and he’s a great actor. Akiva Goldsman is just awful with that kind of material. |
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Metallo
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Post by Metallo on Mar 21, 2022 14:47:06 GMT -5
I’m 100% sure it was just the standard “Don’t do it or you’ll be typecasted forever and you’ll end up killing yourself like George Reeves did.” Gotta remember that the mentality of comic book material was that it was kiddie fodder with Warners only seeing a profit in selling the screen rights to the Salkinds, seeing the whole endeavor as a disaster in the making, even when they got Brando and Hackman. They didn’t see the potential until they saw it come together. I’m sure Hurt and Williams ate their words as well because they failed to see the potential verisimilitude in the material. His performance in "Dune" was pretty disappointing... but then again, the whole thing was disappointing, compared to the David Lynch (my favorite) version--- but.... in hearing about his obsession with asking a zillion questions about character, it's possible that he gave it his all each time- but it could also be that the end result still doesn't look all that impressive. Having said that.... wasn't he fantastic as Ross, even when he had only a few lines each time around? His demeanor and screen presence in those bit pieces filled the screen, for such a small part. The Sci Fi channel miniseries wasn’t as ambitious or creative as Lynch’s film but it was more faithful. I just think it was held back by the limitations of being a tv miniseries. At the time I also wasn’t as into it as I was the film version even though I appreciated its attention to detail. There’s a sort of Kubricks Shining vs Kings Shining thing going on with the various competing versions of Dune. |
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Mar 21, 2022 19:16:39 GMT -5
His performance in "Dune" was pretty disappointing... but then again, the whole thing was disappointing, compared to the David Lynch (my favorite) version--- but.... in hearing about his obsession with asking a zillion questions about character, it's possible that he gave it his all each time- but it could also be that the end result still doesn't look all that impressive. Having said that.... wasn't he fantastic as Ross, even when he had only a few lines each time around? His demeanor and screen presence in those bit pieces filled the screen, for such a small part. The Sci Fi channel miniseries wasn’t as ambitious or creative as Lynch’s film but it was more faithful. I just think it was held back by the limitations of being a tv miniseries. At the time I also wasn’t as into it as I was the film version even though I appreciated its attention to detail. There’s a sort of Kubricks Shining vs Kings Shining thing going on with the various competing versions of Dune. I tried watching it a couple of times- but to me, there's been low budget tv around that time that I felt was carried off better. So many dull choices from script adaptation to the art design... just... not crazy about the scifi tv series. The new Villaneuve film is good, but I think it's being overpraised.... and the Lynch version still to me is more interesting a film experience. |
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Post by Kamdan on Apr 7, 2022 11:29:29 GMT -5
He’s definitely phoning in his performance, especially when compared to the great Guy Williams, who despite being disappointed that Lost in Space turned into The Dr. Smith Comedy Hour still gave 100% convection and charisma in his performance (aside from The Great Vegetable Rebellion, which no one could be paid enough to take seriously). Mumy and Harris “turned down” the movie sorely because they weren’t getting the parts they wanted. Mumy wanted to play the older Will Robinson but was told no and Harris was only interested to play Dr. Smith. There was an attempt to make a continuation of the TV show with Mumy and Harris reprising their roles, but it never came to fruition with the little interest the film generated and the death of Harris.
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Metallo
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Post by Metallo on Apr 7, 2022 15:59:33 GMT -5
He’s definitely phoning in his performance, especially when compared to the great Guy Williams, who despite being disappointed that Lost in Space turned into The Dr. Smith Comedy Hour still gave 100% convection and charisma in his performance (aside from The Great Vegetable Rebellion, which no one could be paid enough to take seriously). Mumy and Harris “turned down” the movie sorely because they weren’t getting the parts they wanted. Mumy wanted to play the older Will Robinson but was told no and Harris was only interested to play Dr. Smith. There was an attempt to make a continuation of the TV show with Mumy and Harris reprising their roles, but it never came to fruition with the little interest the film generated and the death of Harris. Guy Williams was a very different performer from William Hurt. He was always more energetic and charismatic. You can’t really compare their John Robinsons since tonally the movie was so different from the series. Even compared to the early more serious episodes of Lost In Space. It’s not Hurts best performance but he certainly wasn’t phoning it in. I think one could make a strong argument he was miscast but you could make that argument about several people in that film even if they were going for a different take. The biggest problem with that movie is they had nothing to work with. Oldman was so over the top (he wasn’t checked out) but he wasn’t that good in the movie either. Who was? No one came out of that looking particularly good and that shows it was a problem with the direction and script. I’ve seen Bill Mumy turn down good parts and bit parts. If it had been good enough he would have taken it even if it wasn’t the older Will Robinson. Mumy’s whole thing is he doesn’t like putting up with certain things and he’s been around long enough that he wouldn’t bite his tongue about it. |
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Post by Kamdan on Apr 8, 2022 14:37:01 GMT -5
I listened to an interview with Treat Williams and he confirmed that he was considered for the role of Superman but told his agent to withdraw him from consideration. I can assume Hurt did the same. Williams also said that on Reeve’s first day working with Brando, he laughed at him when he saw him doing the body shake when Jor-El gives him his powers back. Glad I wasn’t the only one who did that when we eventually saw it in the Donner cut.
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Apr 9, 2022 0:57:59 GMT -5
It's weird that Williams got a chance to get on the set... I thought Brando demanded a lot of privacy for the shoot, but it could have been limited to press in the beginning.
I still find it a bit unnerving that the first week Reeve worked on the shoot, that Brando seemed to be mocking the whole production. I've mentioned how it HAD to have been anxiety-inducing as it was Reeve's first lead role that could have been his last... (and given that, could understand any acting out if others on the set didn't take the production seriously as it was all on Reeve's shoulders)-
But- one wonders if it drove Reeve to dig in even deeper to give an ultimate performance, or if he would have felt more freed up if he felt everyone was taking it seriously.
In any case, the Donner cut was a mess- but I've always maintained the longview of Donner's work should have had fans give Donner the benefit of the doubt (plus STM in any cut)- that Donner knew how to get a great performance, or knew when to reshoot when needed and possible.... but while I'm bummed that we didn't get a good cut of SII- that at least we knew Donner was in good spirits going into shooting the new Lethal Weapon.
I do wonder now and then if Donner watched or enjoyed the superhero films that came down the line indirectly from STM.... we know his wife was involved in X-men, but I do wonder how much he enjoyed/didn't enjoy the superhero films like Spiderman and the like outside of Supes himself.
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Post by Kamdan on Apr 9, 2022 21:11:28 GMT -5
Williams wasn’t there. It was something Reeve told him later and how it did leave him a bit heartbroken to have that happen. Brandon later apologized because he didn’t know that’s what he was supposed to be doing. Williams knew his stuff because he recalled the story when Brando tried to convince James Caan to take the role but he said, “You don’t have to wear the tights, Marlon. I don’t want to.”
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Post by crazy_asian_man on Apr 24, 2022 11:31:15 GMT -5
Williams wasn’t there. It was something Reeve told him later and how it did leave him a bit heartbroken to have that happen. Brandon later apologized because he didn’t know that’s what he was supposed to be doing. Williams knew his stuff because he recalled the story when Brando tried to convince James Caan to take the role but he said, “You don’t have to wear the tights, Marlon. I don’t want to.” So glad Caan had an aversion to tights!  |
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