Joel McCrea In His Own Words

Here are a few quotes from Joel McCrea, pulled from various sources I’ve come across.

“I liked doing comedies but as I got older, I was better suited to doing Westerns. I felt at home in them, you know?”

“If I’m gonna do claptrap, I may as well do claptrap on horseback.”

“No one had to tell me to be careful of my own image. I got the idea watching stars I admired: William S. Hart in the beginning, and Gary Cooper later on. Harry Warner — the smart brother — told me that I should never play a heavy or an antihero. I agreed and I never played a bad guy.”

“Coop, Wayne and I all learned to act in the movies by acting in the movies. I think the most important lesson we ever learned was when to hold back. The Broadway actors still haven’t learned that one trick.”

“I think the trouble with most movie actors is that they think about everything but acting. They are either doping the horses or worrying about what their stocks are doing or mulling some deal to buy an apartment house. They devote their time to everything except what brings in the money to invest — motion pictures. The movies are a warm, satisfying business. But it’s an exacting business, too. And you can’t give a good performance when you worry about that call to your business agent.”

“Give me a deal at a major studio every time and I’ll be happy. As soon as the sneak preview is over, so are my worries. I’ve studied this business for 15 years, and it’s convinced me an actor’s place is in front of the cameras… The only time I got shoved around in all my years as an actor was when I owned 35 per cent of the movie I was making.”

“After 87 pictures in 47 years, I knew when to quit.”

“I did the best I could — without trying too hard.”

Sources:

Last Of The Cowboy Heroes by Robert Nott

Romantic Comedy In Hollywood: From Lubitsch To Sturges by James Harvey

An interview with Gerald Peary

Various newspaper stories, usually plugging one of McCrea’s 50s Westerns

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