The always-great Letters of Note today has an old letter from Gene Wilder (who’s 79 now) to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate factory director Mel Stuart (ironic that Mel Gibson shares a name with so many classic Jewish filmmakers, isn’t it?). But first, they open with another Wilder anecdote which I’d also never heard:
In the early-1970s, when originally offered the lead role in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory by director Mel Stuart, the great Gene Wilder accepted on one condition:
“When I make my first entrance, I’d like to come out of the door carrying a cane and then walk toward the crowd with a limp. After the crowd sees Willy Wonka is a cripple, they all whisper to themselves and then become deathly quiet. As I walk toward them, my cane sinks into one of the cobblestones I’m walking on and stands straight up, by itself; but I keep on walking, until I realize that I no longer have my cane. I start to fall forward, and just before I hit the ground, I do a beautiful forward somersault and bounce back up, to great applause.”
Asked why, Wilder explained: “Because from that time on, no one will know if I’m lying or telling the truth.”
Meanwhile, the main letter concerned Wilder’s input about his costume for the film:
