Celebrities often have different lives before they make their way to Hollywood, to the shining light of fame and glory with flashing lights of cameras and reflection of confetti. Legendary actor Christopher Walken was among those who had a scary past, but for him, it was a cakewalk.
Walken’s legacy in Hollywood is glorious with over five decades being in the industry with his iconic voice that makes him distinguished. But before his showbiz glory and accolades, Walken was a lion tamer— it’s a job that screams terrifying for any common person.
Christopher Walken’s Past Job Was Terrifying
Christopher Walken was a lion tamer before he was a movie star. Of course, Walken has walked through different genres in Hollywood with his signature appeal and his iconic voice. In a chat with IndieWire, the actor shared his past when he was just 16. “When I was 16 I spent a summer taming lions,” Walken told the outlet.
“But, it was fake… Well, it was fake in the sense that the real lion tamer who owned the small circus, the gag was that he had a son, which he didn’t. But I had an identical outfit, and he would do this big act with a dozen big cats. And then he would send them all out at the end and just leave this one old girl, and I would come in with my whip and I’d go like that and she’d sit up. But she was really more like a dog. [laughs] It wasn’t really lion taming. She was very sweet.”
Sure, Walken made it sound like a walk in the park but it has the inherent risk factors associated with it. Still, it seems he was good at his job before his cinematic journey created a legacy.
Christopher Walken Revealed One Instance That Scared Him To The Bone
Lion taming was not scary for Walken, but The Deer Hunter and A View to a Kill actor was with something else. The actor revealed that he was scared to the bone doing Peter Pan Live! “I just did it like I do everything else. It was eight weeks rehearsal,” he told IndieWire.
“The hard part, and I didn’t realize it until we got there, was that you really only get one chance. That’s very rare in television, you know, even so-called “live” television, they’ll do multiple takes and then put it together. This was no net,” he said.
Rehearsing for eight weeks with big costumes, big boots, swords, and hats is no joke, but the actor had a good time, “I had a good time. I was lucky, you know, they got through it and it went okay. There was a lot of luck involved with that.”
“Because a lot of people flying around on wires, there’s a lot of–anything can happen…”
But there was tremendous pressure, Walken admitted, “I did very much. I was scared!” More scared than any other projects he had done, it seems.
“Well, yeah! Like I said I’ve done first previews where I’ve forgot all my lines. And then you do it again the next night and then by Saturday it’s getting better. But this was nothing like that.”
Still, the actor is open to any new challenge. Walken recently appeared in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two.
Dune: Part Two is now showing in select theaters and is available to rent on Apple TV and other video-on-demand platforms.
