The Actor Steve McQueen Allegedly Tried to Undermine on Set
Acting legend Steve McQueen was famous for being very protective of his status as a movie star.
He did not like sharing the spotlight with other big actors. When he had to work with other famous names, he often acted in petty ways to make sure he was the center of attention.
One of the most famous examples of this happened on the set of the 1960 movie The Magnificent Seven. At that time, Yul Brynner was the bigger star and had the lead role. McQueen did not like being second to Brynner, so he found ways to distract the audience during Brynner’s scenes. Since he did not have many lines, he would fiddle with his hat or rattle shotgun shells while standing in the background. He wanted to make sure people were looking at him instead of the main actor.
The two men also fought about their height. Brynner was a bit taller, so he would build small piles of dirt to stand on when they were in the same shot. McQueen would wait for the right moment and then kick the dirt away so Brynner would look shorter again. According to Marshall Terrill, who wrote a book about the actor with McQueen’s widow, the star did this because of jealousy.
Terrill said in his writing, He felt that Brynner was a humourless egomaniac, and wanted to bring him down a notch while stealing the movie out from underneath him. McQueen knew he was not yet powerful enough to ask for more lines, so he used these tricks to become the breakout star of the film.
This was not the only time McQueen had a big ego on set. Later in his career, he starred in The Towering Inferno with Paul Newman. The two actors were so competitive that they demanded the exact same number of lines and the same amount of money. They even argued about whose name should appear first on the movie posters.
Even though he was difficult to work with, McQueen’s plan worked perfectly. The Magnificent Seven made him a huge star and launched his career into the big leagues. However, Brynner was reportedly very angry about the sabotage for the rest of his life.
It is crazy to think about grown men fighting over piles of dirt and counting their lines like children. Usually, we think of these classic stars as being very professional, but it seems like their egos were just as big as their paychecks. It shows that even the coolest guys in Hollywood can be very insecure when someone else is in the lead.
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