Kurt Russell Dropped Out Of 1985's Ladyhawke For Three Reasons

Kurt Russell was everywhere in the '80s (as he still should be now, in my opinion), but there was one 1985 film he can't be spotted in despite having originally signed on for it. It's "Ladyhawke," the largely forgotten fantasy epic starring a pre-"Ferris Bueller" Matthew Broderick alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer. Directed by "The Omen" and "The Goonies" filmmaker Richard Donner, "Ladyhawke" received a lukewarm welcome at the box office and critical reviews to match.

So, how did Russell end up dodging this bullet? Well, apparently, by sticking to his no-tights rule. The actor once spoke about exiting the film in an interview with Whitney Scott Bain for Starburst Magazine, and confessed that a few factors led to his decision not to see the project through. "When I got there, I see wardrobe and the character has to wear tights," Russell explained, adding plainly: "I don't wear tights. That's not for me." Coming from anyone else, this would seem like an issue of laughably fragile masculinity, but from the mouth of an undeniably badass star like Russell, it just seems like a given. Of course, sure. Kurt Russell doesn't wear tights. Even if he does sometimes wear a Santa outfit.

The costuming issue was just the tip of the iceberg, though, as Russell said that "on top of that, production got held up because of strikes and political problems." Without knowing the full shooting timeline for the movie, it's tough to tell which strikes Russell is referencing. However, it's worth noting that several Hollywood unions fought for fair wages in the early '80s, including the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, the organization representing actors. Regardless of the context, Russell was able to use the shift in the production timeline as an excuse to get out of the movie. "I went to Dick Donner the director and told him that this was a mistake taking this role and I was sorry, so I recommended Rutger Hauer and said he'd be perfect for the part and I could get him," Russell recalled, admitting — hilariously — that he had never actually met Hauer.

A book by the film's script co-writer, Tom Mankiewicz (yes, of those Mankiewiczs'), offers an alternate perspective on why Russell may have bailed: he was lovesick for his new partner, actor Goldie Hawn. In the book "My Life As a Mankiewicz," the screenwriter recalled that Russell seemed irritated during rehearsals. "One day he said, 'I don't want to have that helmet. I don't like a helmet. I don't look good in a helmet,'" Mankiewicz wrote. He went on to claim that when Donner insisted Russell wear a helmet, the actor said Kirk Douglas would never wear one. Donner retorted that Douglas had worn one before, in "Paths of Glory," and "it looked great."

At any rate, Mankiewicz concluded that costuming was not the real problem. "The real thing that was eating Kurt was he had just fallen in love with Goldie Hawn," the late filmmaker wrote. "She was in L.A. and he was about to spend eight months in Italy. He thought he would lose her forever." The writer says Russell confessed as much to him one night, while also asserting that he just didn't have a face for a period piece like "Ladyhawke." Not every detail between the two stories lines up — Mankiewicz says that Donner came up with the idea to recast Russell's role with Hauer — but judging by the star's later interview, love may have had something to do with it.

"I thought it would be fun to shoot a film in Italy for a few weeks and then go home," Russell told Bain later on. "Goldie, my wife, said that I'd be there for several months and I didn't believe her." There's a big difference between three weeks and eight months when you're smitten, and it sounds like the actor was not thrilled to be spending so much time apart from the women he'd end up spending the rest of his life with. Once Hauer was in talks for the part of the wolf-man Etienne of Navarre, Russell was off the hook, and able to relish his newfound free time. "While everything was being negotiated, Goldie flew over and we spent two weeks in the hotel room before we went home," Russell concluded. Judging by the years of happiness he and Hawn have shared since — and the years the rest of us have spent not remembering "Ladyhawke" — Russell definitely made the right call.