At the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in 2008, Jewison told the audience that McQueen had come to him and begged for the role of Thomas Crown. The director, however, had his reservations.
“This guy is a Phi Beta Kappa, a brilliant banker,” he recalled saying to the star. “No way… you’re not right for the part.” Jewison wanted a ‘real actor’ to play the part, whereas he saw McQueen as more of a movie star.
“He was so cool that somehow he wasn’t acting,” he continued. “He didn’t care about lines. He knew where the camera was. He’s real. There is a big difference between film acting and stage acting.”
Never one to be told what to do – this was the guy who once almost got into a fight with Bruce Lee – McQueen kept pestering Jewison for the part. “He talked me into casting him,” the director, who had previously worked with the actor on The Cincinnati Kid, relayed. “We bought him a $2,500 suit and he became Thomas Crown. He was brilliant.”
As already mentioned, McQueen was seen by many as the highlight of the film and with good reason. His suave presence and electric chemistry with Dunaway elevate what would otherwise be a very run-of-the-mill movie. Without his involvement, there’s every chance the film would be forgotten today.
Instead, The Thomas Crown Affair has a firm foothold in modern culture. The song ‘The Windmills of Your Mind’, which was written for the film by French composer Michel Legrand, has become a standard.
The movie itself was remade in 1999, with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo in the lead roles. It was a huge hit and reviewed just as well as the original, if not slightly better.
McQueen was the sort of actor who could transform any project into something entirely new. Without him, Bullitt wouldn’t be the all-out action romp it is, and The Thomas Crown Affair wouldn’t be a beloved classic.