{"id":83423,"date":"2023-10-27T05:30:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T09:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/henry-winkler-on-turning-down-grease-role-i-was-dumb-83423"},"modified":"2023-10-27T05:30:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T09:30:33","slug":"henry-winkler-on-turning-down-grease-role-i-was-dumb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/henry-winkler-on-turning-down-grease-role-i-was-dumb-83423","title":{"rendered":"Henry Winkler on turning down ‘Grease’ role: ‘I was dumb’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Henry Winkler says fears of being typecast prompted him to turn down the lead role in 1978\u2019s “Grease.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was dumb,” Winkler told People magazine in this week\u2019s issue. “I spent so much energy, so much time \u2026 I spent so many sleepless nights thinking, \u2018How do I not get typecast?\u2019”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 77-year-old was at the height of his “Happy Days” fame, playing leather jacket-wearing “Fonzie,” when he was offered the part, and he worried that the role of Danny Zucko, which went to John Travolta, would pigeonhole him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 1978 musical was one of Travolta\u2019s first leading film roles after his turn as Tony Manero in “Saturday Night Fever.”<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018HAPPY DAYS\u2019 STAR HENRY WINKLER LOOKS BACK ON 50-YEAR CAREER, REVEALS HOW FONZ’S ICONIC CATCHPHRASE CAME TO BE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“You go with the flow,” Winkler advised. “What you do is you prepare to reinvent yourself. You do something completely different and then come back to center.”<\/p>\n

After “Happy Days” ended its 11-season run in 1984, Winkler, like many other performers, struggled to launch the second act of his career.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“There were eight or nine years at a time when I couldn’t get hired because I was\u00a0‘The Fonz’<\/a>, because I was typecast,” he told Today.com earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I had psychic pain that was debilitating because I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where to find it, whatever it was. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I had a family. I had a dog. I had a roof. Oh. My. God.”<\/p>\n

He eventually created his own production company out of “will and fear.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Winkler told People he has spent most of his life being anxious, but he believes the biggest lesson he\u2019s learned looking back is “not only must you be tenacious, not only must you be grateful, but you also have to be flexible.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adding to his anxiety as a young actor was his undiagnosed dyslexia.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

LIKE WHAT YOU\u2019RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“Even in the midst of\u00a0\u2018Happy Days,\u2019 at the height of my fame and success, I felt embarrassed, inadequate,” he wrote in an excerpt of his new memoir “Being Henry: The Fonz\u2026and Beyond,” according to People.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Every Monday at 10 o\u2019clock, we would have a table reading of that week\u2019s script, and at every reading I would lose my place or stumble. I would leave a word out, a line out. I was constantly failing to give the right cue line, which would then screw up the joke for the person doing the scene with me. Or I would be staring at a word like \u2018invincible’ and have no idea on earth how to pronounce it or even sound it out.”<\/p>\n

He was eventually diagnosed at 31\u00a0<\/p>\n

He told People his dyslexia led him to question his ability to form his production company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Somebody suggested I become a producer. I start off saying, ‘I can’t do it. I’m dyslexic. I have no idea what the business is. I can’t do it,\u2019” he said, “And then finally you say, ‘Oh, just shut up and try.'”<\/p>\n

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Winkler found roles in movies like “Scream,”<\/a> “The Waterboy” and “Click.” Adam Sandler cast him in five of his comedies, and Winkler landed a recurring role in the short-lived but critically acclaimed series “Arrested Development,” which was executive produced by his former “Happy Days” co-star Ron Howard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He had an eight-episode arch on Amy Poehler\u2019s “Parks & Rec” and had a recurring role on “Royal Pains.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2018, he was cast opposite Bill Hader as acting coach Gene Cousineau in the dark comedy series “Barry” and earned his first primetime Emmy<\/a> of his career that year. He was first nominated for “Happy Days” but never won.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

“If you stay at the table long enough, the chips come to you,” Winkler said in his acceptance speech. “Tonight I got to clear the table.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source – https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/henry-winkler-turning-down-grease-role-dumb <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Winkler says fears of being typecast prompted him to turn down the lead role in 1978\u2019s “Grease.”\u00a0 “I was dumb,” Winkler told People magazine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_2902945987_2902945987":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[16563],"tags":[],"stock_ticker":[],"class_list":["post-83423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHenry Winkler on turning down 'Grease' role: 'I was dumb' - Wall Street PR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cablemanpro.com\/wallstreetpr\/henry-winkler-on-turning-down-grease-role-i-was-dumb-83423\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Henry Winkler on turning down 'Grease' role: 'I was dumb' - 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