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Then he got the call from MGM about an opportunity to co-star with Olivier.
I went, Wait a minute.
Richard Burton … Laurence Olivier.
Who wins this battle?
They cast him on the spot.
I dont even know if I read for it.
Hamlin didnt end up sharing the screen with Olivier (the gods kept to Mt.
He later starred inL.A.
SoClash of the Titansopened in second place toRaiders of the Lost Ark, which is respectable.
The producers never spoke to me again after that.
Ray Harryhausen wouldnt talk to me for 25 years after that.
They came to me and said they wanted to do this global press tour.
I was really excited.
And they said, Whats apartheid?
I said, Well, youll have to look it up, but I cant go.
And they said, Well, thats a problem because Johannesburg is underwriting the entire tour.
They were not happy with me.
They thought we could have been much more competitive withRaiders of the Lost Arkif we had done that tour.
Did you feel like you missed out?
No, I just wanted to meet him.
I sort of wanted to style my career after his.
Having been classically trained for years, that was my journey only classical theater.
I had no interest in doing movies, whatsoever, and then I got cast inMovie Movie.
My mother made me do that.
But Im fine with that.
It gave me a great career.
ButClash …the script was terrible.
And we did work on it.
Every day with the director we worked on the dialogue, of which there was very little.
But I did the best I could to elevate a pretty dreadful script.
I think it worked.
Most actors, you cant remember their toga movies, but something was right with this movie.
I think all those things came together and made it work.
Wereyouafraid it wouldnt work?
I actually quit the movie when they told me they wanted me to do this thing.
That also really pissed them off because they had an impetuous actor on their hands.
They didnt want me to cut Medusas head off with a sword.
And I said, Well, how does her head come off?
Because Ive got to be able to take it and hold it up to the Kraken?
At which point I locked myself in my trailer.
They unplugged all the electricity to the trailer.
They had to drive to Valletta to find a payphone to call London.
They kept sending in people to venture to change my mind all day.
And, every time they left, they were on my side.
At the end of the day, they had to relent.
They let me cut her head off with a sword.
I dont have any sympathy for anybody who gets to do a big blockbuster today.
Its not like digging ditches.
But in terms of working with nothing, its somewhat challenging.
You have to imagine that theres a scorpion in front of you.
And he says, No.
No, that will never work.
Dont even try it.
He was so mad at me when I came off.
I said, I couldnt help myself.
I just imagined this thing stinging me and then I cut the tail off.
Ray and I had some friction around a couple of things.
There was another shot that I wanted to be in the movie.
I wanted to approximate the exact same position as the Cellini statue.
He said no, absolutely not, were not going to have that in the movie.
And were walking out of the temple and its starting to rain.
The cinematographer had the camera on sticks over his shoulder.
I said, Hey, put the camera down just for one second.
I got into that position.
That moment is also in the movie.
They were not happy with me on the set, lets put it that way.
How do you feel about Bubo the robot owl 40 years later?
This isanotherreason why they did not like me.
I called up Charles Schneer, the producer, and I said, You cant call this owl Bubo.
If you call this owl Bubo, its going to conjure up a blistering bleeding boil.
I rewatchedClashlast night, and boy, those are some short togas yall are wearing.
Basically, the togas were shammies.
I couldve taken one back and washed my car.
There wasnt much to it.
They were so mad at me.
Genre movies werent exactly cool and mainstream in 80s the way they were today.
Did you feel any sort of stigma as an actor in the wake ofClash?
It looks a little bit like that famous Raquel Welch poster from that movie that she did.
But, it wasntClash, it wasMaking Lovethat caused that to happen.
It ended my career.
Well, you did all right.
Yeah, I just never made another [studio] movie.
I went on TV, but I never made another movie.
Would you work in genre again?
A big mythic epic or the modern-day equivalent of one, a superhero movie?
And Ive been very fortunate in my entire career.
Having doneClashwas one of the highlights of that career from my point of view.
It wasnt necessarily from the producers point of view, but I loved it.
I loved the traveling, and the horseback riding, and the fantasy, and the whole love story.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
