As Clint Eastwood once said in Magnum Force, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” When it came to the movie Days of Thunder, Dale Earnhardt Sr. adopted Eastwood’s motto and actually turned down a co-starring role opposite Tom Cruise.
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On this week’s edition of the Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. regaled listeners with yet another story about his father and perhaps the most iconic movie ever made about NASCAR.
The 1990 movie was a huge hit and will likely remain a classic for many years to come, until a sequel — call it Days of Thunder 2 — is made. And there appears to be traction gaining for such a sequel.
Junior told the story about how Cruise came to North Carolina to meet with his father to discuss ‘The Intimidator’ playing the character Rowdy Burns.
“So there’s dad and maybe (his wife) Teresa and me and (sister) Kelly and four or five employees that worked at the shop and Tony (Eury) Sr.,” Junior said. “Not a crowd, just a couple of us there. Well, Tom drives up… Tom Cruise is not as tall as I expected him to be. He’s got a face full of pimples.
“He and dad go into dad’s office and they talked for like an hour, hour and a half, long time. And then they came out, shook hands. ‘Hey man, great time.’ I got to say hey to Tom Cruise, and he leaves. Tom basically came by to sit down and talk to dad because dad’s character was Rowdy Burns. They (had) sort of the same vibe, I guess.”
But the senior Earnhardt knew he wasn’t an actor. “Tom mentioned that dad should play the role (of Burns),” Junior said. “And dad was like, ‘You know, the way this sounds is he’s the bad guy and I really don’t want to be the villain. That’s not my style.’”
Even if Cruise gave the nod, Earnhardt likely still would have lost the role
If his father had agreed to play the role of Burns, Junior gave his best film critic explanation: “That would have not been as good as what the end result was.”
Even if the elder Earnhardt would have agreed to play Burns, the film’s producers and directors likely would have turned thumbs down. And let’s face it, how many people in their right mind would have turned thumbs down to The Intimidator?
“I think that the people that actually produce and direct and make all those decisions would have had a problem with that because dad’s not an actor,” Junior said.
Ironically, Junior did not bring up what he would do if he was offered a big role in a Days of Thunder sequel. But the younger Earnhardt feels that as long as Cruise reprises his role in Days of Thunder 2, it’ll be another winner.
“I’m confident that if they make Days of Thunder again, it’ll be a great representation of really where the sport is and how it is because he will do the homework to go, ‘This is authentic. This moment is authentic. This set’s authentic. This scene is authentic.’
“When Tom Cruise played Cole Trickle, it was believable. He, to me, was any Cup driver in the series in the 90s. He played that part so well, his style, his look, the way he spoke, his attitude.”
