To say that James Arness was a recluse would be something of an understatement. He gave very few interviews during his later life, especially after his informal retirement from show business. The hermit on horseback preferred solitude to the hustle and bustle of Hollywood and didn’t spend many of his days contending with the show business system.
So, when Arness made the time to speak during an interview, it was a rare opportunity to learn from one of the greats of TV and Movie-land. Luckily for readers everywhere, one staff writer at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune knew exactly which questions to ask during a 2005 interview with the elusive Arness.
Namely, the journalist pressed Arness about his time on set in Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World. Was he really so embarrassed by the character’s costume that he ate separately from the rest of the cast? For years, audiences wanted to know: Was it actually the case that Arness hated the role?
“Not true!” Arness declared. “I started in movies in 1946 and lost a lot of parts because of my height. When Howard Hawks put me in The Thing, it was a great break for me at the time, because I was struggling to get any kind of job whatsoever, and that picture got a tremendous amount of publicity… and got me other work afterward.”
While he may have earlier bemoaned the “Giant Carrott” costume and makeup he wore for The Thing from Another World, it’s clear that as Arness aged, he gained some perspective. While it may have been a pain in the neck at the time, he certainly wasn’t going to waste his breath later in life jeering a movie that was important to his career. It may not have won him any Academy Awards, but The Thing definitely is the thing that led to the thing, in that he eventually became Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke,
So, while it may have lacked the prestige of some of the work his peers were doing, The Thing from Another World was crucial in the trajectory of Arness’ career, and he clearly had some respect for the project and the opportunities it led him to.