John Goodman recalls feeling incredibly nervous about filming the car-smashing scene from The Big Lebowski. Released in 1998 to lukewarm critical reception, The Big Lebowski has since gone down in history as one of the most significant cult classic movies of all time. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey Lebowski, a.k.a. The Dude, the film follows a slacker’s attempt to get compensation for his ruined rug after debt collectors mistake him for a wealthy elite with the same name.
In the film, Goodman plays Vietnam War veteran Walter Sobchak, a close friend/bowling partner to The Dude. Sobchak’s time in the war has left him paranoid and prone to extreme outbursts, which is displayed perhaps most memorably in a scene where he violently smashes up a Corvette with a crowbar. After Larry, a young boy, refuses to give up information regarding a missing briefcase, Walter takes a crowbar to the car on the street outside while swearing and yelling, “You see what happens, Larry?!” The Big Lebowski remains relevant even today, but a recent spinoff movie, The Jesus Rolls, which is not directed by the Coens, largely failed to live up to the expectations set up by the original film.
In a new Vanity Fair career retrospective, Goodman reveals that he was “worried to death” about filming the car-smashing scene. Not only would he have to yell a number of vulgar obscenities, but he would have to do it in the middle of the night in a quiet residential neighborhood. Goodman reveals that his worries were quickly alleviated after he discovered that the Coens had paid to relocate the neighborhood’s residents for the night. Check out Goodman’s full comment below:
“We’re in the middle of their neighborhood and I’m yelling the foulest obscenities that Joel and Ethan can come up with at three o’clock in the morning. And I was just worried to death about that. It made me really uncomfortable until I started doing it. And then I found out that they’d paid people to stay away. I had the best damn time smashing that Corvette with a crowbar.”
The car-smashing scene is unquestionably great in the final film but, thankfully, the Coen brothers took precautions during filming to ensure that all the noise wouldn’t disturb the neighborhood residents trying to sleep. While Goodman may have been nervous to film the scene, the moment remains one of the most memorable in the entire movie. Bashing a Corvette to pieces is not the only notable outburst from Walter, however, with the character also famously pulling a gun during a disagreement over whether a bowling competitor committed a foul or not.
The Coen brothers have created a number of unique and unforgettable characters over the years, but Goodman’s Walter Sobchak might just stand above the rest. His peculiar mannerisms and violent outbursts are both hilarious and terrifying, and Goodman’s performance just elevates the entire character. The Big Lebowski has quite literally spawned a religion inspired by Bridges’ The Dude, but it’s Goodman’s Walter who often steals the show and has many of the movie’s most memorable moments.
Source: Vanity Fair
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