Filming in the jungle on the other side of the globe for months is no easy task. This is even more true when we talk about the filming of Apocalypse Now. Many actors have refused the role of Captain Willard, including Clint Eastwood…
Apocalypse Now, or the work of a 40-year-old demiurge who has been denied nothing or almost nothing since his immense success with The Godfather and its sequel. “After Apocalypse Now, I realized that I will never be a young director again” declared Francis Ford Coppola, while he presented his film at the Cannes Film Festival where it left with the Palme d’Or tied with The Drum.
No other film from the 70s garnered this much attention before the film was even released. It is also impossible to dissociate the undeniable success of the film from the mind-blowing circumstances which surrounded its creation, recounted elsewhere in the sensational documentary Heart of Darkness.
A season in Hell
Scheduled to last 6 weeks, filming was spread over 16 months, between March 1976 and August 1977. Located in the Philippines, the film sets had to endure nothing less than a hurricane, the heart attack of the main performer Martin Sheen – hidden from production for a Francis Ford Coppola terrified of the film being shut down; the attitude of Marlon Brando who didn’t know his text and had barely read the script before arriving, the various drug problems…
Described by numerous witnesses as increasingly megalomaniac and paranoid as the filming progressed, Francis Ford Coppola invested a large part of his personal money in the adventure, repeatedly threatened to commit suicide and lost more than 40 kilos.
So much for the legend. In fact, Coppola had already torn his hair out beforehand, to find the one who would play Captain Willard, responsible for putting an end by all possible means to the actions of Colonel Kurtz, holed up in the depths of the jungle.
An actor nowhere to be found for an endless shoot
With the triumphs of his two Godfather films, Oscars included, many actors have succeeded one another to be able to play in Coppola’s film. Top of the list: Steve McQueen. He asked for a fee of $3 million, a sum far too high for the production. McQueen initially rejected the role of Willard in favor of Kurtz, because the latter role required a shorter filming time.
There was also talk of Al Pacino. But filming in the Philippines and for such a long time hardly motivated him, especially since he fell ill during the filming of certain sequences of The Godfather II, in the Dominican Republic. The names of James Caan, Nick Nolte, Jack Nicholson, Robert De Niro, Keith Carradine and Robert Redford also circulated briefly. One after the other, they all refused to participate in a shoot that seemed doomed to failure.
Paramount Pictures Martin Sheen in “Apocalypse Now”
“I had a vague idea of where he wanted to go”
Enter the name Clint Eastwood. At the time, the 39-year-old actor was already largely in orbit, since the triumph of his dollar trilogy with Sergio Leone, and especially that of Inspector Harry. Coppola called him personally to offer him the role of Willard.
But Eastwood also declined the offer. A role too dark for him. According to Clint himself, Coppola wanted to see him play Willard alongside Steve McQueen. Instead, neither actor ended up playing their respective roles.
A cold shower for the filmmaker; especially since Eastwood knew the novel well In the heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad, for having read it. “I had a vague idea of where he wanted to go, but then I said no, I didn’t think I could be gone for that long.”
It must also be said that Eastwood had started building his house at that time. Going deep into the jungle on the other side of the globe for months on end wasn’t exactly his top priority. Home Sweet Home…