John Lithgow Said ‘Cliffhanger’ Was the ‘Best Job I Ever Had’
Not all actors would relish the chance to go toe to toe with one of the world’s most famous action stars. After all, some prefer the challenge of mastering dialogue and wrestling with a character’s emotions. While John Lithgow is a veteran of stage and screen, one project stands out from his distinguished career: the 1993 action film Cliffhanger starring Sylvester Stallone.
John Lithgow has worked in movies, TV, and theater for decades
Since the early 1970s, Lithgow has expertly balanced standout roles in movies, on television, and the stage. In Hollywood, he earned Oscar nominations for The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment. The now-76-year-old has held various character actor roles but is perhaps best known to younger moviegoers for voicing Lord Farquaad in the 2001 animated hit Shrek.
On TV, Lithgow portrayed a stranded alien in the long-running sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards along the way. He appeared in Dexter, where he played Arthur Mitchell aka the Trinity Killer. The latter indicates much of his filmography, as directors often cast Lithgow as a villain. Such was the case when he starred opposite Stallone.
John Lithgow went up against Sylvester Stallone in ‘Cliffhanger’
In a video for GQ, Lithgow discussed some of the most popular roles of his career. And naturally, Cliffhanger is a part of the conversation. The movie, where Lithgow plays the villainous Eric Qualen, earned more than $255 million worldwide in 1993, according to Box Office Mojo. Lithgow admits he had a ton of fun playing his larger-than-life baddie.
“Cliffhanger was the best job I ever had,” Lithgow explained. “We were four months in Italy. I worked maybe a fourth of the time … Pretty much my own flat-out action film. And I was even in the big climactic brawl with the hero. And the hero was Sly Stallone. Wow. At the total top of the action film food chain. It was as good as it gets.”
Lithgow wasn’t supposed to play the main villain in ‘Cliffhanger’
Lithgow reveals that it was Christopher Walken, not himself, who was initially in line to play Qualen. Lithgow was supposed to play a secondary villain, likely one of Walken’s henchmen. But when Walken left the project, Lithgow was “bumped up overnight.”
Suddenly, he found himself working with director Renny Harlin to develop his take on the character. This included developing a vague accent inspired by Alan Rickman’s performance as Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
These days, Lithgow is back to playing a far more sympathetic character. The actor stars as an FBI agent charged with hunting down a former CIA operative (Jeff Bridges) in the new FX series The Old Man. That series debuted in June 2022 to near-universal critical praise and has already been renewed for a second season.
