The forgotten 2002 role Kurt Russell called his "most satisfying" ever

The 2002 role Kurt Russell called the most satisfying of his career: 'I like the way it came out' Satisfaction comes in many shapes and forms in all walks of life, but it's at least on-brand for Kurt Russell to give the performance he called his most satisfying in a movie that too few people bothered to see on the big screen, which has been the defining theme of his career. There's a reason why he's known more for being a cult actor than an A-lister, and while Russell has been around long enough and proven himself enough times to have spent decades commanding multi-million-dollar paycheques, his most memorable roles usually have an asterisk attached to them. Big Trouble in Little China's Jack Burton, Used Cars' Rudy Russo, Tombstone's Wyatt Earp, The Thing's RJ MacReady, and Death Proof/Grindhouse's Stuntman Mike are among his most iconic characters, and all of them headlined movies that either barely turned a profit or outright bombed at the box office. It's a position that he's grown increasingly familiar and comfortable with, since Russell has acknowledged several times over that whenever he signs on for any film, there's a distinct possibility it'll be the latest addition to his cult classic canon rather than an instant hit, so slow-burning praise hasn't shocked him for a long time. In the early 2000s, though, Walt Disney's former protégé was at a bit of a crossroads. Having been grossly overpaid for Paul WS Anderson's sci-fi disaster, Soldier, it would be three years before he returned to the screen, and when he did, 3000 Miles to Graceland earned the unwanted distinction of being the worst thing he'd ever starred in. For his next leading role, Russell realised that a change of pace was necessary. To achieve that, he signed on to play a corrupt veteran cop who initiates their rookie partner in the ways of bending the law, operating in the grey areas, and dispense questionable forms of justice in director Ron Shelton's Dark Blue. The filmmaker, who'd finally gotten the chance to collaborate with the leading man after being forced to replace him with Kevin Costner on Bull Durham almost a decade and a half previously, felt destined to play Eldon Perry, with James Ellroy penning the script in the early 1990s with Russell in mind for the part, and even though the screenplay was rewritten by David Ayer, it all came together eventually. Dark Blue was made for $15 million, roughly the same amount of money that Russell alone had been paid for Soldier, but it's not like he was in it for the money, with the veteran calling his performance the 'most satisfying' he'd ever given. 'I really like that character,' he pointed out. 'I like the way it came out; what I wanted to go, I got to do.' Despite winning rave reviews for his against-type turn, the film did what so much of his best work has done, and sank without a trace at the box office. On the plus side, the personal satisfaction of bringing Perry to the screen went a long way to making up for the professional disappointment of seeing Dark Blue fail to make a splash with the ticket-buying public.