Has your family trotted out the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life every year since you can remember? Has an ex ever introduced you to the wacky comedy of remarriage The Philadelphia Story? Have you experienced the two-hour nail-biter that is Rear Window?
If you have, I don’t need to tell you that James Stewart is one of classic Hollywood’s most recognizable—and long-lasting—leading men. Even if you’re not well-acquainted with Stewart’s vast filmography, you’re probably familiar with the guy’s oft-parodied “aw shucks” demeanor. At this point, it’s baked into our culture: the image of the all-American little guy facing off against corruption in Washington, or in a small town, or (in one of his weirdest movies, The Mortal Storm) an actual Nazi takeover. And now that Riverdale star KJ Apa is playing Stewart in a forthcoming biopic, a new generation of people will be introduced to the WWII flyer, actor, and late-in-life poet.
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KJ Apa is hot, but let’s face it: that trailer looks… pretty bad. We can’t speak to the quality of the biopic, but it’s coming whether we like it or not, and it’s stirring up some old familiar questions about one of classic Hollywood’s brightest stars.
Stewart was tall, handsome, and goofily approachable. But was he… you know… cast in Hitchcock’s gay classic Rope for a reason?
The short answer is no.
Stewart was a verified ladies’ man and definitely saw a lot of action on the set, but sadly he was not playing for our team. There is, however, one interesting, kind of gross piece of lore that speaks that Stewart’s MTM gender transformation.
We know Rock Hudson was forced to “masculinize” himself by going out into the woods and screaming to achieve a deeper voice. Apparently back in the day, it wasn’t enough to be an extremely hot cis man. You had to prove you were a manly he-man through dubious means. For Stewart, that meant being forced by MGM studio head Louis B. Mayer to attend a bordello. Because at that time, when you signed a contract with Mayer, he basically owned you (see: Judy Garland’s addiction cycle) and he employed various fixers, like Eddie Mannix, to make sure you did what he said.
When Mayer saw Stewart in the beginning of his career, he looked like a scrawny, low-T kind of guy. So Mayer did the only reasonable thing: he forced Stewart to have sex with a few ladies of the night. Why? Because a rumor had somehow gotten around that Stewart was queer—and Mayer didn’t like it. So, according to Stewart biographer Marc Eliot, Mayer ordered the young actor to: “get your a** over there and get those rocks off with at least two of those broads.”
How did the gay rumor get started? We don’t know, but Mayer’s request proved an offer Stewart literally couldn’t refuse: especially since Mayer owned both Stewart’s contract and the brothel in question. Stewart had also seen the careers of previous leading men curl up and die after failing to play heterosexual ball. It was all well and good to be queer or bisexual behind the scenes, as many stars from Greta Garbo to Marlene Dietrich were. But for a leading man at the start of the wartime years, even a whiff of femininity was enough to crush your dreams in the big town.
So Stewart allegedly did what he was told, and the rest is history. If this anecdote shows up in the biopic, however, we’ll be pretty surprised. If there’s one thing KJ Apa can do, it’s generate that leading man sizzle onscreen. But can he generate a believable approximation of one of Hollywood’s best-remembered actors? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
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