He was Paul Newman, with these fierce blue eyes and that flawless face, and a hard-earned status for taking part in flawed characters. She was Joanne Woodward, the oldest residing winner of the Oscar for greatest actress.
Their ardour for his or her work – and for one another – lasted half a century. Not solely have been they megawatt stars, they have been a Hollywood anomaly: a happily-married couple.
However that a part of their story is extra fable than reality.
The outstanding Newman/Woodward story is advised absolutely – and advised actually, warts and all – in a six-part documentary, "The Final Film Stars," streaming this week on HBO Max.
The director is an actor, four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke. "I fell extra in love with them as I did it," Hawke advised Turner Traditional Films host Ben Mankiewicz. "And the extra you care about them, the extra you need to do the story justice."
Hawke landed the gig in a cellphone name from considered one of Woodward and Newman's daughters: "She thought that any person ought to make a documentary about her dad and mom. And I used to be like, 'Oh, undoubtedly, that might be an amazing documentary.' She's like, 'Would you do it?' I keep in mind I used to be like, 'Oh, me? Why me?'"
Clea Newman, Joanne and Paul's youngest, thought a veteran stage and display actor like Hawke would perceive the pressures her dad and mom confronted. "They have been two actually difficult folks," she mentioned. "They have been in a extremely difficult enterprise."
The phrases of Newman and Woodward themselves kind the core of the documentary.
Hawke mentioned, "The factor that the children gave me that I knew was gold was an deserted memoir that Paul was writing within the mid-'80s. He had his greatest pal, Stewart Stern, interview all a very powerful folks in his life: John Huston, Robert Altman, and those that he labored with. And Joanne. He even interviewed his ex-wife."
These interviews have been recorded, but you will not be listening to them, as a result of in 1991 Paul Newman actually set the tapes on fireplace. Clea mentioned, "The story is that he took them right down to the dump and burned them."
However he did not burn the transcripts. Hawke mentioned, "I had this concept that, 'What if I requested all my actor pals to play these elements and convey them again to life?'"
Among the many forged of the documentary's transcript recreations are George Clooney as Newman, and Laura Linney as Woodward.
"The glue that held Joanne and me collectively was that something appeared attainable."
Clea Newman believes her father had a selected aim when he agreed to be interviewed: "He wished to dispel the parable that all the pieces was excellent, that all the pieces got here straightforward. That is not the case."
Paul and Joanne met on Broadway in 1953. Instantly, they have been drawn to one another. And as Mankiewicz notes, at first of their relationship, it was not a sophisticated dialog about who was the higher actor. "Everyone thought Joanne, am I proper?" he requested.
"Yeah. Everybody, yeah!" Hawke laughed. "Together with Paul."
The Paul-Joanne romance started as an extramarital affair. Paul had a spouse and three younger kids. Within the documentary, Paul's daughter Stephanie says the divorce was devastating for her mom, Jackie.
Within the documentary Stephanie mentioned, "I used to be a child and needed to watch my dad and stepmom trip off into the sundown with Hollywood contracts. And [my mom] wished to be an actress. … It is an insufferable story."
Hawke mentioned, "It is insufferable from Jackie's standpoint, and I believe the outstanding factor that I sort of admire about Paul Newman when he got down to do the memoir, he requested his greatest pal to please go interview Jackie and get her aspect of the story."
Paul and Joanne ultimately had three kids of their very own. Joanne, in a type of interviews that Paul burned, expressed her bouts of ambivalence concerning motherhood:
"Any individual as soon as requested me, what was it prefer to be residence and elevating your kids and having a profession and all the pieces? And I mentioned it was onerous. You have been responsible for those who have been on set, as a result of you ought to be residence with the youngsters. In case you have been residence with the youngsters, you thought, why am I not on the set? Why is Shirley MacLaine getting all these elements?"
Woodward additionally mentioned, "My kids are all fantastic. I really like all of them, and they're all people worthy of being cherished. But when I needed to do it over once more, I am undecided I would have kids. Actors do not make good dad and mom."
Hawke mentioned, "And I believed as an actor myself, I wanted to place that line within the film."
Clea Newman mentioned, "I believe it was very onerous for her to surrender one thing that she was so enthusiastic about. I do not blame her for that. However I am nonetheless human, and I am her child, so … I do not assume that she felt that method later in life in any respect."
Hawke mentioned, "Once they first married, she'd simply gained the Oscar. She's the star! After which she needed to sit and watch her husband's profession annually [get bigger]. I put within the documentary, there is a shot of The Beatles arriving in America. They mentioned, 'What do you hope to do?' They usually say, 'Meet Paul Newman!'"
A part of that fame was Newman's appreciable intercourse attraction, which he advised was pure Hollywood fiction, claiming, "When folks meet me, there's that preliminary … Then they begin to discuss to me, and that sexual curiosity simply diminishes with every passing second."
Woodward famous, "Solely the 2 people who find themselves concerned know what binds that relationship collectively."
Their marriage, the documentary makes clear, was a problem. Paul's extreme consuming was their largest hurdle. The youngsters name him a functioning alcoholic. However Joanne mentioned they labored at it collectively
"Joanne gave him his confidence," mentioned Hawke. "Joanne taught him to imagine in himself. Joanne taught him to like himself. When any person asks her why their marriage labored, she mentioned, 'There's my ego, and there is his ego, and there is our ego. And once we're each in service of our ego, we are able to do something.'"
They labored collectively on 16 films, 5 of them directed by Paul.
"Their relationship by no means stopped rising," mentioned Clea. "Their artwork by no means stopped rising. They by no means stopped pushing themselves, discovering new issues that have been attention-grabbing to them."
Joanne directed theater. Paul raced automobiles. And collectively they have been exceedingly beneficiant philanthropists. In response to Clea, they gave away "between $700,000,000 and a billion dollars. However I do not actually know. It is loads. And the humorous factor is, is that they most likely would not need anyone to know."
What they probably would need us to know is that they each did their best work – and have become their greatest selves – within the final act of their lives.
Hawke mentioned, "I really feel like all of us want heroes that present the top of our life as a risk of being one of the best a part of our life."
"They by no means weren't holding fingers, his arm round her," Clea mentioned. "They have been so in tune with one another. It was like what an excellent relationship can appear like after you're employed actually onerous for the robust occasions."
The hardest occasions got here rapidly. In 2007, Woodward, at 77, was identified with dementia. Lower than 10 days later, Newman discovered he had terminal most cancers.
"When my father was dying, my mom, she did not wanna be within the room," mentioned Clea. "And so, we have been strolling round in the lounge, after which she checked out me and she or he mentioned, 'I've to go to him.' And he or she walked in, and simply grabbed his ft, and he took his final breath. Even in demise, the final individual he wished to attach with was her."
To look at a trailer for "The Final Film Stars" click on on the video participant beneath:
For more information:
- "The Final Film Stars" debuts on HBO Max July 21
- Pictures courtesy of USA At present
Story produced by Reid Orvedahl and Robert Marston. Editor: Steven Tyler.
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