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Credit: Far Out \/ Warner Bros.<\/p>\n
Fri 31 July 2026 21:15, UK <\/p>\n
Nobody usually raised an eyebrow whenever John Wayne<\/a> felt the need to tear a co-star a new one, and he did it more than a few times during his career, but doing it to a literal child seems a wee bit harsh.<\/p>\n Not that \u2018The Duke\u2019 gave a shit, clearly, after developing the habit of repeatedly losing his cool with a nine-year-old in front of the cast and crew. Weirdly, the little fella was a veteran himself, so maybe you can understand why Wayne got so short-tempered with his performance, but only if you hate kids.<\/p>\n Otherwise, there\u2019s no need for a grown man to be yelling at a little boy, especially one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. The face of the \u2018Golden Age\u2019 western was known for being a perfectionist, though, and whenever things weren\u2019t going to his liking, he was known to tell anyone within earshot that they were doing it wrong<\/a>, and the best way to do it was, of course, John Wayne\u2019s way.<\/p>\n In general, he wasn\u2019t having a very good time of it. 1953\u2019s Hondo was your standard \u2018Duke\u2019 vehicle in almost every way, shape, and form, but partnering him up with a method actor in their feature-length debut led to some tension behind the scenes, mostly because the leading man couldn\u2019t understand what Geraldine Page was trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n Wayne was never the biggest fan of acting\u2019s more immersive offshoot, but Page got the last laugh when her nomination for \u2018Best Supporting Actress\u2019, her first of seven Oscar nods in total, was the only awards season recognition the movie received, not that he could wrap his head around how she\u2019d pulled it off<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, young Lee Aaker had been cast as Johnny Lowe, the son of Page\u2019s Angie, whom Wayne\u2019s title character protects throughout the film. He\u2019d already been in more than a dozen pictures, despite only making the first of them two years previously, so as far as child actors go, he was hardly a novice.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for him, a combination of the star\u2019s distaste for Page and his complete disinterest in whatever director John Farrow was supposed to be doing, with \u2018The Duke\u2019 subsequently saying the filmmaker \u201cdidn\u2019t really have a great deal to do with the film\u201d and he\u2019d basically ghost-directed it himself, led to him carting around a shorter fuse than usual.<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cEvery morning, when he would be hungover, he would have a screaming fit,\u201d Page recalled. \u201cHe\u2019d yell at somebody until he got hoarse.\u201d One morning, the subject of his ire turned out to be the unwitting Aaker, who wasn\u2019t performing a scene the way that Wayne had repeatedly instructed him to do it.<\/p>\n \u201cWayne got tired of it,\u201d Hondo\u2019s leading lady added. \u201cHe kept trying to bully the child into doing what he wanted, and the boy wouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d Nothing says \u2018consummate professional\u2019 like bullying a nine-year-old into trying to perform their lines to your satisfaction, and he\u2019d have been as glad to see the back of Aaker as he was to see the back of Page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/a> The Far Out John Wayne Newsletter<\/p>\n