Credit: Far Out / Alan Light
Sun 27 September 2026 21:45, UK
As someone who worshipped the ground that Marlon Brando walked on, the chance to even enter a tangential orbit to his idol was an opportunity that John Goodman couldn’t refuse.
He may have never gotten the chance to work with arguably the single most influential actor who ever lived, but he was a keen student of Brando nonetheless, and like so many other heavyweight thespians, he doesn’t believe there’s ever been anyone better than the transformative icon.
If Goodman couldn’t get Brando, then what was the next best thing? Playing a key supporting role in an adaptation of the legendary breakthrough role that earned the method savant his first Academy Award nomination, which was itself adapted from the play in which he originated the same role, probably.
As it happened, the sitcom stalwart and Coen brothers favourite was cast as Harold ‘Mitch’ Mitchell in the 1995 made-for-television version of A Streetcar Named Desire, with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange reprising their parts from the 1992 Broadway revival as Stanley Kowalski and Blanche DuBois, respectively.
For obvious reasons, Goodman was never going to be cast in the lead, but taking third billing as the latest performer to embody the character that won Karl Malden an Oscar for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ in Elia Kazan’s 1951 classic was as close to the next best thing as he’d ever be likely to find.
Since the Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy winner also has a career-long fondness for shitting all over his own work, with almost everything apart from The Big Lebowski being trashed by the man himself at one time or another, it was no surprise to find out that Goodman wasn’t best pleased with his work.
For the part, he adopted a bespoke New Orleans dialect that the locals call a ‘yatty accent’, and with the benefit of hindsight, he wished he hadn’t. “I made the guy a yat,” the star rued. “And it was just the wrong way to go. I didn’t even read what the critics said. They were probably right: I stunk.”
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
The critics were actually pretty kind to his Streetcar, and so were his peers, with Lange winning a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actress in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television’ and Baldwin nominated in the corresponding category. As for Goodman, despite what he thought, he got some recognition, too.
Along with Lange and Baldwin in the leading categories, he was shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special’ at the Primetime Emmys, and, having avoided the reviews because he didn’t want to know how much he was being slaughtered, he had no idea that they were actually showering him in praise instead.
