This is Kurt Russell’s Role He Thought Would Be His Final Performance

Back in 1986, Kurt Russell revealed in an interview with Frank Lovece that he was ready to leave Hollywood if his portrayal of Elvis Presley didn’t succeed.

“By the time I got to Elvis, mentally, I was prepared to blow it out,” Russell said. “I said, ‘I’m doing this exactly the way I want to do it. If nobody likes it, tough shit, that’s the way it goes.’ If everybody hates me, I’m gone, out of the business. But it didn’t work out that way.”

Russell played the legendary singer in Elvis, a 1979 made-for-television biographical film that aired on ABC. The movie marked the first collaboration between Russell and director John Carpenter.

Despite being up against two major TV classics—Gone with the Wind on CBS and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on NBC—Elvis drew higher ratings.

It earned a 27.3 Nielsen rating, beating the 24.3 of Gone with the Wind and the 22.5 of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The film was the sixth most-watched program that week.

After its success on American television, a shorter version of the movie was released in theaters across Europe and Australia.

It received critical acclaim and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Made for Television, as well as three Primetime Emmy Awards, including one for Russell as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Special.

The European and Australian theatrical releases performed modestly at the box office. In Australia, it earned $50,000 in its opening weekend and totaled $350,000 over three weeks. In Helsinki, Finland, it grossed $25,000 in its first 10 days.

Russell’s role as Elvis became a career-defining moment, proving that taking a risk in Hollywood can pay off. He went from considering retirement to cementing himself as one of the most respected actors of his generation.

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