In a new memoir, the late cinematic icon Paul Newman shares some insight into his complex relationship with stardom–and specifically with the role his appearance played in his own fame.
Newman's piercing bright blue eyes were a huge part of what made him so strikingly handsome, but in Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man, he discusses feeling as if his looks were obscuring his hard work.
"You work what you consider pretty hard at your craft, and you're getting to the point where you're just starting to feel kind of good about yourself, and then somebody says, 'Oh, God, take off your sunglasses so I can see your baby-blue eyes!' " Newman said, in an excerpt from the book released by People.
According to Newman's daughter, Cleo, the actor was intensely private and "incredibly shy," and was always seeking to educate himself to avoid feeling as though he was coasting by on his good looks. "He was trying to consume as much information so he didn't have to feel like that arm candy, which is so funny because as a kid, I thought he was brilliant," she said, per People. "He gave great advice and he was a great listener."
The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir
As a result of that shyness, Newman noted that he often wore sunglasses "because I want to hide myself." But that wasn't the only reason. He had a low tolerance for light, he said, thanks to "an accumulation of Budweiser, as well as damage from my early days making movies, [when] the slower film exposures often required an actor to keep looking straight into an arc light."
Paul Newman: The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man contains many more insights into the career and inner life of the actor, who died in September of 2008 at the age of 83. The book will be released on October 27, 2022.
Emma Dibdin is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles who writes about culture, mental health, and true crime. She loves owls, hates cilantro, and can find the queer subtext in literally anything.
