Matthew Modine’s Full Metal Jacket John Wayne Impression Came From Working With Mel Gibson
Warner Bros.
By Anya Stanley/Nov. 27, 2022 10:00 pm EST
“Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?” It’s a recurring line in “Full Metal Jacket,” Stanley Kubrick’s intense 1987 war meditation as famous for its colorful language and memorable characters as it is for its scrutiny of the Vietnam conflict. The line is first uttered by Matthew Modine’s J.T. Davis, a new Marine recruit at Parris Island. Delivered within a full-throated impersonation of the Golden Age movie star, the cheeky statement lands Davis on the radar of sadistic drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), earning the quipster the nickname “Pvt. Joker” for the bulk of the movie. See the moment here, and enjoy the subsequent cornucopia of curses that flows from the D.I.’s lips.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Pacific Heights” star unearths the story behind Private Joker’s drawling John Wayne impression which, it turns out, was cultivated three years before stepping onto Kubrick’s set. Modine grew up in and around both Utah and southern California, the son of a drive-in theater manager. “Our homes typically were next to the drive-in properties,” he tells the Wall Street Journal, “and every night was movie night.” Of the movies playing at the outdoor theaters, John Wayne’s westerns were frequently shown; it would familiarize the future actor with the gruff cowboy aesthetic that would come to characterize “The Duke.” Anyone who’s watched “The Cowboys” or the Oscar-nominated “True Grit” knows Wayne’s iconic delivery: low, slow, and more legato than staccato. It’s a sound that, according to Modine, co-star Mel Gibson came amusingly close to as he learned the nuances of an American accent on the set of a romantic drama.
Matthew Modine’s Full Metal Jacket John Wayne Impression Came From Working With Mel Gibson
Warner Bros.
By Anya Stanley/Nov. 27, 2022 10:00 pm EST
“Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?” It’s a recurring line in “Full Metal Jacket,” Stanley Kubrick’s intense 1987 war meditation as famous for its colorful language and memorable characters as it is for its scrutiny of the Vietnam conflict. The line is first uttered by Matthew Modine’s J.T. Davis, a new Marine recruit at Parris Island. Delivered within a full-throated impersonation of the Golden Age movie star, the cheeky statement lands Davis on the radar of sadistic drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), earning the quipster the nickname “Pvt. Joker” for the bulk of the movie. See the moment here, and enjoy the subsequent cornucopia of curses that flows from the D.I.’s lips.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Pacific Heights” star unearths the story behind Private Joker’s drawling John Wayne impression which, it turns out, was cultivated three years before stepping onto Kubrick’s set. Modine grew up in and around both Utah and southern California, the son of a drive-in theater manager. “Our homes typically were next to the drive-in properties,” he tells the Wall Street Journal, “and every night was movie night.” Of the movies playing at the outdoor theaters, John Wayne’s westerns were frequently shown; it would familiarize the future actor with the gruff cowboy aesthetic that would come to characterize “The Duke.” Anyone who’s watched “The Cowboys” or the Oscar-nominated “True Grit” knows Wayne’s iconic delivery: low, slow, and more legato than staccato. It’s a sound that, according to Modine, co-star Mel Gibson came amusingly close to as he learned the nuances of an American accent on the set of a romantic drama.
It’s a recurring line in “Full Metal Jacket,” Stanley Kubrick’s intense 1987 war meditation as famous for its colorful language and memorable characters as it is for its scrutiny of the Vietnam conflict. The line is first uttered by Matthew Modine’s J.T. Davis, a new Marine recruit at Parris Island. Delivered within a full-throated impersonation of the Golden Age movie star, the cheeky statement lands Davis on the radar of sadistic drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey), earning the quipster the nickname “Pvt. Joker” for the bulk of the movie. See the moment here, and enjoy the subsequent cornucopia of curses that flows from the D.I.’s lips.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Pacific Heights” star unearths the story behind Private Joker’s drawling John Wayne impression which, it turns out, was cultivated three years before stepping onto Kubrick’s set.
Modine grew up in and around both Utah and southern California, the son of a drive-in theater manager. “Our homes typically were next to the drive-in properties,” he tells the Wall Street Journal, “and every night was movie night.” Of the movies playing at the outdoor theaters, John Wayne’s westerns were frequently shown; it would familiarize the future actor with the gruff cowboy aesthetic that would come to characterize “The Duke.” Anyone who’s watched “The Cowboys” or the Oscar-nominated “True Grit” knows Wayne’s iconic delivery: low, slow, and more legato than staccato. It’s a sound that, according to Modine, co-star Mel Gibson came amusingly close to as he learned the nuances of an American accent on the set of a romantic drama.
The key, apparently: slow down an Australian accent
MGM
“I’d done a movie with Mel Gibson called ‘Mrs. Soffel,’ one of the early movies of my career. And since Mel had quite a heavy Australian accent and had to speak like he was an American, the dialect coach would work with him in slowing him down. And in the process of listening to him learn to speak like an American and then us taking classes together so that we’d sound like brothers, Mel would often sound like John Wayne. So I learned how to do a John Wayne impersonation when I was working on ‘Mrs. Soffel,’ working with the dialect coach and listening to Mel Gibson learn to speak like an American.”
