Cary Grant ‘Deplored’ 1 Thing About Movie Business – His Fans
Actor Cary Grant revolutionized the movie business over the course of his career. He had the opportunity to experience the best and worst sides of the Hollywood machine. However, Grant admitted that his least favorite part of it all was dealing with fans in public. The actor had his own reasoning for why he didn’t enjoy that part of his fame.
Cary Grant helped invent the ‘screwball comedy’
Before Grant started his movie career, he worked as a performer in a traveling acrobatic troupe. His journey ultimately led him to Broadway, where his musicals caught the eye of Hollywood executives. Grant would gain favor with movie critics, which allowed his comedy career to blossom.
Howard Hawks, Frank Capra, and Grant are some of the names that invented the screwball comedy movie genre. Grant had the opportunity to work with some of the industry’s best actors, including Katharine Hepburn. However, he enjoyed his privacy away from his career.
Movie star Cary Grant ‘deplored’ interacting with his fans in public
According to Interview Magazine, Grant didn’t particularly enjoy interacting with movie fans. Interviewer Kent Schuelke asked what the most difficult part was of being the character Grant.
“I don’t consider it difficult being me,” Grant said. “The only thing I wish—that we all wish—is that our faces were no longer part of our appearance in public. There’s a constant repetition of people approaching me—either for those idiotic things known as autographs or for something else. That’s the only thing I deplore about this particular business.”
Grant further explained that in his older age, fans still occasionally approached him. However, they would be more likely to address more “current” stars. Grant called such interactions “a bore” and explained that: “The people I’d most like to meet are the least likely to come up to me.”
Schuelke asked Grant if he made himself accessible to movie fans, or if he avoided them.
“I do not care or like to talk to [my fans],” Grant said.” I’m not rude. I try to be as gracious as I can when someone next to me at dinner wants to know how I feel about a leading lady. But I don’t answer letters to fans. I don’t answer anyone’s letters. I couldn’t possibly answer everybody.”
Grant continued: “I can’t even attend to my own legal matters. I must receive two sacks of mail every day. So you can’t answer the people. You feel rather sorry you can’t, especially where there are children concerned, but it can’t be done.”
The actor had a casual perspective on his films
Interview Magazine inquired about how Grant approached his movie projects. Some artists are very serious about their art, while others simply view them as entertainment. However, Grant looked at his films in a more casual light, preferring for audiences to interact with them as they please.
“A film’s a film,” Grant said. “As [Alfred] Hitch[cock] would say when someone would get all upset on the set, ‘Come on, fellas, relax—it’s only a movie.’ Now, if you want to dissect it and tri-sect it and cut it up into little pieces, well, that’s up to you. We made them. We didn’t know their intentions half the time, except to amuse and attract people to the box office.”
