This Actor Utterly Hated John Wayne, Now We Know Why
Red River may be a classic Western, but behind the scenes, the set was anything but friendly. Two stars shared the screen — and barely tolerated each other off it.
When Red River hit theaters in 1948, it was supposed to be Montgomery Clift's big Hollywood breakthrough. What audiences didn't see was the complete disaster behind the scenes — and Clift's loathing for his co-star, John Wayne.
The two men couldn't have been more different. Clift was soft-spoken, introspective, and part of a new wave of emotionally layered acting. Wayne was... well, John Wayne — the poster boy for cigar-chomping, chest-thumping American masculinity. Naturally, they clashed.
Wayne didn't hide how he felt about Clift, reportedly calling him "an arrogant little bastard" and mostly avoiding him on set. Clift, for his part, said the few poker games they played together "repelled" him — not because of the game itself, but because of Wayne's performative macho nonsense. And if that wasn't enough, Clift also thought the film was a creative mess.
In a later interview, Clift said he was embarrassed by his performance and hated the way the film's ending had been changed. Originally, it was supposed to end with a dramatic showdown between the two leads — but the studio rewrote the scene so John Wayne's character would survive and the tension would be "resolved" by a third character stepping in. Clift didn't hold back:
"Joanne Dru settles the matter and it makes the showdown between me and John Wayne a farce."
That wasn't just artistic frustration — it was personal. To Clift, the rewrite felt like a studio capitulating to Wayne's ego, watering down a meaningful confrontation into a safe, dull finale.
Let's break down the main reasons Clift came to despise both the film and his co-star:
- He thought his own performance was mediocre — and blamed the production environment.
- He resented the final edit, especially the studio-forced ending that undermined the film's dramatic core.
- He was disgusted by what he saw as Wayne's artificial "tough guy" routine, both on set and off.
- He felt completely alienated from the hyper-masculine culture surrounding the film — poker nights included.
Red River may have been a box office success — earning about $4.2 million in U.S. rentals (a strong haul for 1948) — but for Clift, it was a miserable experience. He spent the rest of his career carefully avoiding anything that smelled of macho posturing or conservative Americana, two things John Wayne practically trademarked.
Some trivia that really puts things in perspective:
- Wayne went on to call Clift and other Method actors "little boys with tears" — an insult aimed directly at the emotional subtlety Clift helped pioneer.
- Howard Hawks, the film's director, favored Wayne heavily during production, and Clift privately complained that the role had been distorted in editing.
- Despite the tension, Red River became a Western classic and helped launch Clift's career — though he personally never spoke highly of it again.
- For all the praise the movie still gets, Clift made it clear: he hated the film, hated the process, and hated being stuck in a frame opposite a man whose entire worldview he despised.
And unlike Wayne, he didn't pretend otherwise.