Hal Ashby initially rejected David Carradine for being too tall, yet later reversed course, citing Carradine’s musicianship and a gritty ‘to‑hell‑with‑you’ attitude that seemed right for Woody Guthrie. That very attitude nearly derailed filming more than once. Ashby later recounted a famously exasperating incident: while shooting a scene in which migrant workers marched by, Carradine slipped into the procession and simply kept walking. By the time the crew located him he had marched roughly two miles, and the production lost about three hours of shooting time. The anecdote has become shorthand for Carradine’s improvisatory and occasionally uncooperative approach on set — an actor committed to authenticity but whose methods sometimes clashed with a tightly scheduled film shoot.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
David Carradine’s Rogue March: An Actor So In Character He Halted Production for Hours
David Carradine / Bound for Glory (1976 film) / 1970s
Hal Ashby initially rejected David Carradine for being too tall, yet later reversed course, citing Carradine’s musicianship and a gritty ‘to‑hell‑with‑you’ attitude that seemed right for Woody Guthrie. That very attitude nearly derailed filming more than once. Ashby later recounted a famously exasperating incident: while shooting a scene in which migrant workers marched by, Carradine slipped into the procession and simply kept walking. By the time the crew located him he had marched roughly two miles, and the production lost about three hours of shooting time. The anecdote has become shorthand for Carradine’s improvisatory and occasionally uncooperative approach on set — an actor committed to authenticity but whose methods sometimes clashed with a tightly scheduled film shoot.
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