TMS Spotlight: The Reluctant Superstar

(via Flickr)

Sometime in the middle of high school, I remember looking up the IMDb page for David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago (1965), after watching the movie for the first time. I came across a trivia bit claiming Julie Christie originally turned down the female lead of Lara Antipova up to three times because she “didn’t want to be famous.” Pfft, yeah, right. I didn’t know much about Julie at the time, except she’s considered one of the best actresses of her generation. There’s no way you get that title by accident. This Zhivago tidbit seems to have disappeared from both IMDb and Wiki since my school days, but now, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if something like that really is true. Usually when a celebrity tries to pull the ‘relatable’ card, it comes off as fake and eye-roll worthy. But in Julie’s case, she actually does have the proof to back up her low maintenance.

The same year as Lean’s classic epic, the English starlet won Best Actress at the Oscars for a career making performance in John Schlesinger’s Darling (1965). In the ceremony footage you can find on YouTube, she’s genuinely speechless and emotional. All she says is a simple ‘thank you’ to Schlesinger before walking off stage teary-eyed with her new trophy. Usually attention seekers will try to milk a moment like that for as long as they can. Dr. Zhivago and Darling made Julie the hottest UK based actress around in the mid to late 1960s. But afterwards, she became just as famous for turning down roles as accepting them. Sydney Pollack’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), Paul Shrader’s American Gigolo (1980) and Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict (1982) are a few of the classics Julie passed on. The films she did sign on to usually did very well with critics and film lovers, but weren’t exactly blockbuster potential; such as François Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973). The biggest hits on her resume would be Hal Ashby’s Shampoo (1975) and Warren Beatty & Buck Henry’s Heaven Can Wait (1978), both which co-starred her then boyfriend Beatty.

Much later in her career, Julie would receive praise and awards hype again for Alan Rudolph’s Afterglow (1997) and Sarah Polley’s Away From Her (2006). But for the most part, she really did do it her way. Legends like Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino calling her their favorite actress they had yet to work with couldn’t even sway her to make more mainstream movies.

(Dennis Hopper)

Similarly in the US, Julie’s peer Tuesday Weld might be the only actor I can think of more famous for not appearing in movies than her actual work. The average fan of old movies might recognize Tuesday for appearing in Norman Jewison’s The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America (1984); or playing Elvis Presley’s love interest in Philip Dunne’s Wild in the Country (1961); or if you’re invested in cult classics, the female lead in Noel Black’s Pretty Poison (1968) and Michael Mann’s Thief (1981). Indie-rock music fans may or may not know that’s an old modeling photo of Tuesday on the cover of Matthew Sweet’s 1991 album ‘Girlfriend.’ But the blonde bombshell usually made Hollywood news for her famous flings and turning down hits like Arthur Penn’s Bonnie & Clyde (1967), Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice (1969), Gene Saks’ Cactus Flower (1969) and Martin Ritt’s Norma Rae (1979). She even went through a period of refusing to be interviewed. And just like Julie, it was because Tuesday didn’t want stardom and eventually left the industry in 2001. Granted, in Tuesday’s case, I can actually see why celebrity life might be a turn-off after experiencing quite an eye-opening, crazy childhood as a kid model and teen starlet with a kooky stage mom. Even into her later days, she insists she doesn’t have any career regrets and went out of her way to decline scripts that might lead to success.

Every so often we get someone who surprisingly passes on movies bound to be popular and chooses to continue working lowkey. Rachel McAdams is an actress from my upbringing I remember being connected to a bunch of famous films—most notably the lead in David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and Pepper Potts in Jon Favreau’s Iron Man (2008)—that she ultimately didn’t take up. I suppose there’s something to be said about preferring to be modest in a business that’s all about attention.