Original question: “What did James Caan think of John Wayne?” I listened to couple of interviews that James Caan had about working with John Wayne. In each he mentioned that John Wayne was very intimidating. And that Wayne was, in many ways, like a 12 year old kid, in that he liked to joke around some.
And Caan also mentioned getting into trouble with Howard Hawks, the director, when he worked with Wayne. Hawks would say do a scene one way, and Wayne, under his breath, would say do it another way after Hawks already said what he wanted Caan to do. When Caan did it Wayne’s way, he got into trouble with Hawks.
Finally, after a week or so, of Wayne sometimes going out of his way to intimidate Caan, Caan just stood up to him. And Wayne laughed. It was just his way with a younger actor.
Wayne’s relationship with Caan was more like a mentor to a novice.
In the end, Caan did like working with John Wayne and enjoyed the comradery they had off set, the memories.
Back to the question once more to summarize: “What did James Caan think of John Wayne?” He liked him.