Kurt Russell Any man who tries it on with Goldie or Kate would regret it
Kurt Russell turned down millions so partner Goldie Hawn could go out to work. But then the women in his life have always been able to look out for themselves...
Kurt Russell is looking relaxed, stressfree, without a care in the world. But there is something strangely absent about him. It takes a couple of moments to realise what it is: the facial hair. Or rather the complete lack of it. This is a man whose personal topiary has seemingly defined his acting career, yet here he is without a hint of five o’clock shadow.
‘It’s funny,’ says Russell, ‘for 25 years after The Thing, I only had clean-shaven parts. Then I got on a roll where every part had this ridiculous facial hair thing going on. On
The Hateful Eight I had to grow that crazy moustache. Goldie [Hawn, his long-term partner] hated it. And it’s only gotten bigger. For Santa [in the new Netflix production The Christmas Chronicles] it’s all out. But me? No. Don’t have one.’
You suspect Russell rather relishes the fact people might struggle to recognise the actor clean-shaven, because he has long enjoyed offscreen anonymity. He regards movies as nothing more than a job from which to earn money for the important things in life. ‘I made my choice: I didn’t want to play the game. And I’m telling you, it cost me a lot of money.’
Russell has always taken such an approach. The son of an actor, he has been in movies since he was a boy. Almost from the start, he says, he would do his best to avoid outside attention.
‘When the unit publicist came on set, I’d run. People told me I wasn’t professional, I wasn’t serious, I was lazy. It translated as he’s not one of us – he doesn’t kneel at the altar. The thing was, I didn’t want that because really what I wanted was to be something else.’
Even as he became one of the highest-paid actors of his generation, Russell craved to be a baseball player. But when, in his early 20s, injury put paid to such ambition, he decided to continue with acting. And as he did so, he recalled his father’s advice.
‘When I was 10, in 1961, Dad made this declaration, “You’re making a man’s salary now, so do a man’s job.” What he meant was: be prepared, be there on time, always do as good a job as you can. And if you don’t like something, be a man and walk away. Here I am, 57 years later, doing things in the same way.’
Never being that bothered by the business has allowed him to indulge his many other passions, from wine-making (he runs a boutique winery called GoGi) through flying (he is a qualified commercial pilot) to golf (he captained the US celebrities team that played against their European counterparts ahead of the recent Ryder Cup). He also enjoys hunting, though when the subject of gun control is raised, he is quick to close down the enquiry.
‘Whenever I talk about it, that becomes what the interview’s about. What I’m talking to you about is this movie. Also, I have a real problem reading celebrities’ take on this stuff. To be honest, I’m not sure the world gives a damn about what Kurt Russell thinks.’
He pauses before letting out a rasping cackle: ‘I’m not sure I do.’
Russell believes keeping the business at arm’s length may well be the reason why he and partner Goldie Hawn have defied Hollywood precedent to remain together for more than 35 years.
‘I very rarely worked when I knew Goldie was going to be working. And vice-versa. Which meant we could be together. Money is great, but you’ve got to say no.’
Indeed, he claims there was at least one occasion when he turned down the chance to star in a major Hollywood production. ‘There was a movie I was going to be paid a lot of money for. I’d rather not say what it was. Goldie was about to go to work, so I had to turn it down.’
So he stayed at home to look after their children, at weekends taking them to visit their mother on set. He had come into Hawn’s life when her two offspring, Kate and Oliver Hudson, were tiny. The couple had a child together – Wyatt – and brought Boston, his son from a previous relationship, under their wing. From the moment they got together, family took priority.
‘For Goldie and me, the core value was this: the kids come first. That big movie I turned down came at an age when they really needed one of us around. Kate was a very sparky personality, a fun girl, great. But when you’re a teenager you need Dad to be there, to say you’re going to be home at 11.30. As a parent you have to be an obstacle at times, so they can learn to get around you. If they learn to get around you, they can get around most troubles.’
Despite his own equivocal relationship with the movie business, he had
no worries about his children following in their parents’ footsteps. Wyatt starred in 22 Jump
Street; Oliver costars with his stepfather in The Christmas
Chronicles; while Kate has long been on Hollywood’s A-list. ‘I had no reason to steer them away,’ he says. ‘I’ve been well paid doing a job that has allowed me to be with my family. From the kids’ point of view, what’s not to love about that?’
Plus he had no fears of what Kate might encounter as she made her way up a business now shamed by its previous tolerance of sexual predation. ‘I know some of those guys who have found themselves in the clutches of payback and I know what they got up to,’ he says of those exposed by the #MeToo movement. ‘They deserve it, bring it on. But if any of those guys made that mistake with Kate – or Goldie for that matter – wow, I’d feel sorry for them. This was a girl who didn’t give a s***. That doesn’t mean she – like her mum – hasn’t faced some of that c**p. But if anyone tried it on, she just got the hell out of there, and if the guy didn’t get out of the way quickly he was going to regret it.’
These days, Russell and Hawn devote themselves to the next generation of their extended family. And there will be a sizeable family gathering at the premiere of The
‘I DIDN’T WANT TO PLAY THE GAME. AND I’M TELLING YOU, IT COST ME A LOT OF MONEY’
Christmas Chronicles: ‘Generally I’m not interested in all that redcarpet stuff. But when the grandkids see some of the stuff we do in this movie, they are going to flip.’
Although nobody should be surprised if the star of the show turns up in fake Santa plumage. After all, Kurt Russell is a man who likes to
hide behind a beard.
The Christmas Chronicles starts on Netflix on Thursday. Also see Russell in the 4k release of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York at Dublin’s Lighthouse cinema on Saturday