Beautiful in-depth tribute to Paul Newman by Danny Miller.
(One of my favorite bits in the tribute is about the famously bad The Silver Chalice – Newman’s first film. Newman was still apologizing for it at the end of his life. “Hi, my name is Paul Newman, and I’d like to apologize for The Silver Chalice.”
I love that Newman remembered, word for word, one of his terrible reviews for that film. Any actor knows that you always remember the bad reviews – man, those words stick – and I find it endearing that even after 10 Oscar nominations, 1 win, and 1 Lifetime Achievement Award (not to mention all the OTHER decorations), and decades of super-stardom – Newman STILL remembered the vicious line from the terrible review so many years before.)
(Paul Newman in “The Silver Chalice”)
Even more admirable than the fact that he didn’t let that first film stop him is that he had the integrity to own up to it his whole life. How can you not be charitable to people like that?
On the bright side, it wasn’t so bad of a humiliation that he had to go to India for a year to ponder the meaning of life.
It’s really really WEIRD to see The Silver Chalice now. It’s really weird to see him not using his talent at ALL – and seeming lost and conventional. Very bizarre. And his beauty, too, seems strangely muted … He just is so lost in the film. What a disaster!
I don’t remember ever seeing it. I looked for any clips on youtube, but it looked like there wasn’t anything there from the actual film, just mentions or descriptions.