The Cowboys received praise for the adventure starring John Wayne and Bruce Dern. However, the third act swung in a more violent direction than most images of the legendary Western movie star. Wayne wanted Dern to look as intimidating as possible on set, so he gave him full permission to “publicly kick him” in front of the child actors. He wanted to see them genuinely terrified of his co-star to improve their performance.
‘The Cowboys’ saw John Wayne and Bruce Dern face off
The Cowboys follows Wil Andersen (Wayne), who is a very experienced breeder. He is about to leave for a long cattle hunt, but the crew he planned to use quits to continue the gold rush. As a result, Wil must find a way to make it work. He must hire a group of young school kids to fill the role on the dangerous journey, but that comes with rewards.
Wil spends his time training young boys to become real cowboys and finally manages to roll out. However, they encounter a vicious bandit named Long Hair (Dern), who sees an opportunity to rob the old man’s herd and a group of children. This puts Wil and Long Hair on a direct path to a fight to the death which the protagonist loses.
John Wayne told Bruce Dern he could ‘kick him public’ to scare child actors
In an interview with Cowboys & Indians, Dern opened up about his experience working with Wayne on The Cowboys. The actor was far from the “grizzled veteran” he later became, but he was about to take on the Duke himself. Many actors would be hesitant to do this for several reasons, including that it could kill their careers. Dern was certainly unaware of this and told the magazine that he “might have been” a bit intimidated by Wayne.
“But right from the start, he was like, ‘I want you to do us a favor,'” Dern recalled. “He included himself, [director] Mark Rydell and the writers. He said, “From now on, think of me as someone you can publicly kick ass 24 hours a day on set.” ‘Cause I want those little kids [playing the cowboys of the title] to be absolutely terrified of you.
Dern continued, “He gave me carte blanche to treat him like a turd. So I was on top of him, answering him and everything, the few days I was there. And he would do things like shout, “Hey, Mr. Dern, would you like to come here? I thought, Hey, John Wayne is giving you “sir” status. My first day, he calls me sir. How about that? It’s pretty cool. »
Laura Dern has lost friends because of the film
Express reported that the climactic fight between Wayne and Dern’s characters in The Cowboys had real-life ramifications. The Western star even once told Dern that he would be criticized for being the man who killed him on screen. Wayne fans always love to see him end up victorious over his antagonists, but this time that’s not the case. Nevertheless, the young children he trained as cowboys end up getting their revenge.
Dern’s daughter Laura even felt the aftermath of Wayne’s death at the hands of her father in The Cowboys. She said that as a child, her friends’ parents canceled their planned play dates because they didn’t want their children to spend time with the daughter of the man who killed Wyane at the screen.
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‘The Cowboys’: John Wayne gave Bruce Dern permission to ‘Kick the S***’ out of it to scare child actors – Noufelle FR