The Shawshank Redemption's William Sadler Ad-Libbed A Line That Totally Changes How We Look At His Character
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Being one of the greatest movies of the 1990s and one of the best Stephen King adaptations of all time, Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption is a film that has been studied and analyzed for decades now… but one of the coolest things about truly excellent art is that you can never stop discovering fascinating details about it. A perfect example of this headlines this latest edition of The King Beat.
For this week’s roundup of Stephen King news, I have two special treats for you – including a great segment from my recent interview with The Shawshank Redemption star William Sadler and an in-depth look at one of the author’s latest movie recommendations. Without further delay, let’s dig in!
William Sadler Provided A Key Bit Of Improv To An Early Scene In The Shawshank Redemption
Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption is a film that doesn’t hold back when it comes to quickly illustrating the terror of being introduced to life in prison. One of the most memorable early scenes in the movie sees prisoners betting on which of the new inmates is going to be the first to have an emotional breakdown – and it not only suggests a certain callousness in the ensemble, but it also ultimately concludes in shocking violence and death that establish extreme stakes in the story. It’s an amazing sequence that instantly gives us an excellent sense of the world and the characters… and one thing you may not know about it is that one of its greatest moments was not actually in the script.
Last week, I had the great pleasure of interviewing actor William Sadler about his various roles in different Stephen King adaptations (including The Green Mile, The Mist, and the upcoming Salem’s Lot remake), and while discussing his part as Heywood in The Shawshank Redemption – which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year – he revealed a fascinating bit of trivia about what can be called the “Fresh Fish” sequence. In the scene, Heywood egregiously teases a newcomer dubbed Fat Ass (Frank Medrano) so that he can win the bet with his fellow prisoners, but Sadler told me that it was his idea to have Heywood try and deescalate things when Clancy Brown’s Captain Hadley arrives on the scene with his deadly baton. Said Sadler,
It's interesting that moment after I... we're all in our cells, and Fat Ass starts screaming, that exact moment, I added, I ad-libbed, 'Just shut up. Just shut up, shut up.' I already won the bet, but, you know, Hadley is coming down. You know, 'If you don't shut up, I know what he's gonna do.' [laugh] 'I didn't mean for you to get killed. I just wanted to win the cigarettes.'
It’s an improv that really changes how we look at Heywood as a character – and when thought of in a big picture sense, it encompasses a lot of what is so great about The Shawshank Redemption. As he is needling Fat Ass, Heywood comes across as a jerk, if not a full-on villain, but our understanding of his intentions and personality change when Hadley arrives and he actually tries to help the man he has been emotionally torturing. It sets a fascinating baseline in a narrative entirely populated by characters who are felons and societal rejects.
As noted by William Sadler in the interview, this emotional complexity extends to the next sequence as well. At breakfast the next day, Heywood is joking around and happy that he won the bet, but everything changes when he learns about Fat Ass’ fate and Tim Robbins’ Andy Dufresne tries to restore some of the dead man’s humanity. Sadler continued,
And then the next morning, I think I owe that guy a big sloppy kiss or whatever. 'How's that horse of mine doing?' 'He's dead. Hadley split his head open.' And Andy's saying, 'What was his name?' 'Cause I don't even know, I don't even know the name of the guy that I just got killed. He asks about him 'cause he knows he got sent to the infirmary. He knows the beating the kid took, but he doesn't know what happened to him. And when he asks and finds out he is dead, and Andy said, 'What was his name?' ‘It doesn't matter what his name is.’ He immediately gets defensive about it.
Heywood isn’t evil; more than anything, he’s just extremely unintelligent and a product of his environment. As such, however, he provides the audience with terrific insight into prison life as depicted in The Shawshank Redemption. In addition to having his complicated interaction with Fat Ass, he later in the film finds himself getting a lesson in institutionalization when James Whitmore's Brooks Hatlen holds a knife to his throat after getting news of his release.
William Sadler explained that Heywood is not the brightest bulb on the chandelier, but he is a vehicle for understanding the world of Shawshank and can even be seen as one of the movie’s primary sources of humor:
He's one of the characters – I like to think that as an actor, I can sort of dial a character's IQ up or down. I can pretend that it's higher than my own, or I can pretend that it's much, much lower than my own. And Heywood is way, way... all it really is is a matter of how much they see going on around them and understand. And the [laugh] and the further down I dial it, until you get to Haywood, he can only see what's right exactly in front of him. He's constantly surprised by things, which I think is fun. It's fun. It's funny that in the movie, I think he's almost a comic relief that you need, you know?
For those looking to celebrate The Shawshank Redemption’s 30th anniversary, the film is available for digital rental/purchase from all major online outlets and us presently available to stream with an AMC+ subscription. Also, be sure to stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more from my interview with William Sadler.
Stephen King Is A Big Fan Of The New Horror Movie Strange Darling, And The Writer/Director Is Over The Moon About It
Filmmaker JT Mollner is currently occupying a very special moment as a dedicated Constant Reader. Not only has he recently been working on the first ever adaptation of The Long Walk, which he has promised to be a “hardcore” cinematic experience, but he can also now say that his work has been given a very special stamp of approval from Stephen King. Last week, the author publicly shared high praise for Mollner’s latest work, the upcoming horror movie Strange Darling, and as you would expect, the writer/director is over the moon about it.
Strange Darling is set to arrive in theaters on August 23, and Stephen King shared his thoughts about the work on his personal Twitter feed last Wednesday, highlighting it as a “clever masterpiece” that you shouldn’t read too much about prior to seeing. You can check out his post below:
Shortly after that Tweet went live, I had the great pleasure of interviewing JT Mollner about his new movie, and the very first question I asked about was regarding Stephen King’s reaction to Strange Darling. The filmmaker knew that the beloved author had seen the movie, but he explained that he had no idea a Tweet was coming:
I was on the Pacific Coast Highway coming down back down to LA from being up in the Central Coast, and all of a sudden my phone started exploding, and I didn't know what the hell was going on… [Stephen King had] seen Strange Darling I think about a month ago, because Roy Lee, our producer, had so kindly... they have a relationship because Roy has produced a number of his films. He got in touch with him and convinced him to watch the film, and then we waited.
In addition to being a producer on Strange Darling, Roy Lee is known for having helped make Andy Muschietti’s IT duology, Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep and The Stand miniseries, so he knows a thing or two about Stephen King and his tastes. Mollner added that he just had recently been talking to Lee and The Long Walk director Francis Lawrence about King’s reaction to his film and that he has been anticipating some kind of social media post:
I was just actually up on set on a Stephen King project I'm writing, The Long Walk, and Roy was up there, and I remember we were telling Francis Lawrence, the director, that Stephen King had liked it. And he was like, 'When's he gonna tweet about it?' And I asked Roy, 'How's that work? Do the PR people ask him to do it?' And he's like, 'Nope. It's not a job for him. He doesn't do it for money. He does it 'cause he loves movies. If he does it, he does it. If he doesn't, he doesn't. There's really nothing we can do.'
The fact that Stephen King Tweeted about Strange Darling is recognized by JT Mollner as a landmark moment in his career, as the filmmaker told me that he has been a fan of the writer since he was extremely young. In fact, Carrie was the very first novel he ever read in full, as he got a copy of it when he was in second grade and went to a used bookstore with his aunt. It was ultimately the source of a key childhood memory, as Moller recounted:
I remember getting sent to the principal's office in second grade by my teacher because Stephen King books, especially then, were considered like garbage horror that was gonna rot the minds of children. And I got sent to the principal's office over that book, and I remember them calling my mom in and asking why she would allow me to have that and read it at that age. And she said, 'He's reading!' She defended me. It's so cool that decades later, this man who I revere so much as an artist and as a person who's influenced me profoundly is a fan of what we've done. It's been a dream day.
Starring Willa Fitzgerald, Kyle Gallner, Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley Jr., Strange Darling arrives in theaters on August 23 – and there is plenty more to come here on CinemaBlend from my interview with JT Mollner.
Recommendation Of The Week: “Red Screen”
From stories of demonic possession to the plot of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, the idea of people we know and love getting replaced with nefarious doppelgangers is a classic horror premise, and it’s one that Stephen King exercises with delight in his short story “Red Screen.” Originally published as an independent e-book in 2021, it’s one of the briefer entries in King’s 2024 omnibus You Like It Darker, but it certainly packs a punch,
In the story, protagonist Frank Wilson is introduced as a NYDP homicide detective who finds personal issues at home gain new, disturbing clarity while interrogating a man named Leonard Crocker, who has been arrested for stabbing and killing his wife. Crocker insists that he didn’t kill his spouse, but instead an alien that has taken her place who has been trying to emotionally wear him down for months. At first, Frank just thinks the guy is off his rocker, but the more the man talks, the more he starts to think about and question the nature of his own issues.
That wraps up this week’s edition of The King Beat, but be sure to head back here next Thursday here on CinemaBlend for my latest roundup of news from the world of Stephen King.
