What People Who Worked With Michael Clarke Duncan Said About Him
Vote up the stories about Michael Clarke Duncan that bring a smile to your face.
- Photo: The Green Mile / Warner Bros./Universal11,080 VOTES
Larry Moss Helped Duncan Find 'Little Mike' To Play John Coffey
Acting coach Larry Moss was brought onto the movie The Green Mile to work with Michael Clarke Duncan. When talking to The Call Back podcast, Moss called Duncan a genuinely “good guy," and Duncan credited Moss with helping him “dig within” himself as he prepared for the role of John Coffey, helping him tap into his emotions.
When talking about his work with Duncan, Moss explained how it went:
I said, Mike, what do they call you? And he said, they call me Big Mike. And I said, well, Big Mike, you can't play this part. I said only Little Mike can play it. And Michael said, well, Mr. Moss, I don't believe I know who that is.
But Moss helped dig deep into the actor's soul, and Duncan found him. According to Moss,
The amount of compassion that Michael found in John Coffey based on his love of his mother and what she sacrificed to bring the kids up without a father. When he connected with the love of his mother, the whole part opened up because John Coffey is a Christ figure. I told him that he had to carry all the pain of the world in his eyes. Once he began to talk about the sacrifices his mother made; his gratitude, love, and compassion for her was so profound that when he screen-tested for it… I was invited to the screen test, they screen tested three actors for the part and they each did three scenes four times. So you watched two hours of screen test. You really got this character. The second take of the second scene, they did a push in to Michael’s eyes and there it was. He had found a connection to compassion and it had changed his life. That compassion he brought to John Coffey changed his life. It was out of love and compassion for his mother.
The actor later said, “I’m an emotional person, a very emotional person… All those tears you see in the movie were mine.”
- Photo: Armageddon / Buena Vista Pictures
In a tribute to Michael Clarke Duncan he wrote shortly after the actor's passing, Armageddon director Michael Bay said he was really “bummed” about “losing such a great guy in” his life. Bay continued:
I gave him his first big movie role in Armageddon as Bear. We found him in a gym. He cried at the first audition because he was so proud to audition for a “Michael and Jerry movie,” he just wanted to make his mom proud. We gave him the role in the room.
Despite impressing Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer at the audition, Duncan proved less than stellar on the first day of shooting. Bay explained:
His first day on Armageddon, he sucked. I remember looking to Ben Affleck and thinking we might need to fire him. But I told him, “Mike, I hired you for you, I want the sweet Mr. Clarke Duncan I met in that room.” I said, “The audience is going to fall in love with you.'” He looked and smiled with deep voice and said “OK.”
From then on, he became the most improved actor on the set. That was the award he got at the end of the film. Everyone loved him, his infectious spirit and great belly laugh. It was a great time I will always remember, how proud I was to watch him grow into an actor.
- Photo: The Green Mile / Warner Bros./Universal
When Michael Clarke Duncan passed in 2012, Bruce Willis said in a statement, “Michael Duncan was a great actor, a great human being, and he was my very dear friend. I will miss Big Mike in a Big Way.”
Duncan and Willis met while making Armageddon and, after some growing pains, became friends. According to Duncan, he'd heard that Willis was difficult to work with and didn't talk to him. Willis called him out on it and asked Duncan to talk to him. From there on out, they were “the best of friends.”
When Willis read The Green Mile, he immediately thought Duncan would be perfect for the role. He told Duncan,
To go buy this book, read it, and when we get back to Los Angeles I will call [director] Frank Darabont for you and tell him I have found John Coffey.
He did reach out to Darabont on Duncan's behalf and assured Duncan he could tackle such a “heavy piece.” In the end, Duncan got the part and called Willis “my angel.”
Willis and Duncan also worked together in Breakfast of Champions, The Whole Nine Yards, and Sin City.
- Photo: The Finder / 20th Television
Hart Hanson, who wrote The Finder (a spin-off series to Bones) was asked to make room for Michael Clarke Duncan in the script. He obliged and crafted the role of Leo to match Duncan's “huge presence.”
When he started working with Duncan, Hanson quickly realized he “was very much like what you see on screen: that big smile, that big voice, not a bit of a bully to him. He doesn’t alpha-male anybody, though he could alpha-male anyone he wanted. He was just a genuinely good guy.”
Hanson was surprised about how Duncan passed, recalling:
He and [The Finder star] Geoff Stults would put on 50-pound vests in Miami at the Sonesta Hotel at Coconut Grove and run up and down 20 flights of stairs and do 50 pushups at the top and at the bottom. Both were inclined to exaggerate how many times they did it, but it certainly was more than once. Geoff, who is 34, would be laughingly astounded that he would be running stairs with this 285-pound, almost 54-year-old man.
- Photo: Daredevil / 20th Century Fox
Michael Clarke Duncan was a regular on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, appearing more than 15 times over the years. He even went to Scotland with the show earlier in 2012.
When Duncan passed, Ferguson played unseen footage shot at Edinburgh Castle. Duncan had given the show so much material, they weren't able to show it all but did so as a tribute to their friend.
- Photo: In the Hive / Entertainment One
Actor, director, and writer Robert Townsend worked with Duncan in what would be his last movie, In the Hive. When talking about the film in 2013, Townsend told Jet that he and Duncan, a fellow Chicago native, had crossed paths at various times during their careers.
When they finally worked together, Townsend was impressed with Duncan's dedication to the role and demeanor on set.
He explained:
My fondest memory of Michael was when there was this big scene he had where he had four pages of dialogue… That day when I came on set, he had the actors and crew assembled in the middle of the room talking. I was like, “What’s going on?” And Michael said, “This is an important scene and I need everybody to be on point today. No laughing, no joking. I want this to be powerful. I want this movie to be really powerful and I need you all to work with me today.” No actor normally does that, the director does. And I was just like, “Oh my God, I love him.”
In the Hive was released after Duncan's passing in 2012, something Townsend described as "bittersweet." Townsend took comfort in the fact that "at least his final piece of work is going to really matter on a lot of different levels."
- Photo: The Green Mile / Warner Bros./Universal
After Michael Clarke Duncan passed away in 2012, his The Green Mile costar Tom Hanks told Entertainment Tonight:
I am terribly saddened at the loss of Big Mike… He was the treasure we all discovered on the set of The Green Mile. He was magic. He was a big love of man and his passing leaves us stunned.
Hanks later spoke at Duncan's memorial service, offering quips about Duncan's “loopy and huge” penmanship that was akin to that of “a 12-year-old girl who loved horses.”
Hanks also offered mourners a funny story about the time Duncan told his mother he had joined a gang. When Duncan's mother heard the news, she hit him with a frying pan and made him go tell the gang he couldn't join. In Hanks's words:
If it wasn't for that mama and the frying pan with a pork chop, we would not be here today celebrating the life of Michael Clarke Duncan.
- Photo: The Green Mille / Warner Bros./Universal
Frank Darabont directed Michael Clarke Duncan in his Academy Award-nominated performance as John Coffey in The Green Mile. Darabont later admitted he wasn't entirely sold on casting Duncan, but "there was something about his soul I couldn't let go of, and I kept coming back to him even as we auditioned other actors,” obviously giving him the part.
After Duncan passed, Darabont called the actor “one of the finest people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with or know… Michael was the gentlest of souls - an exemplar of decency, integrity, and kindness. The sadness I feel is inexpressible.”
When recalling what it was like to work with Duncan, Darabont said,
What sticks most in my mind was his devotion to his craft and the strides he made as an artist during that time, which was beyond inspiring to those of us who took the journey with him. Never has an actor more richly deserved the recognition of an Academy Award nomination than Michael did for his performance as John Coffey.
- Photo: The Scorpion King / Universal Pictures
As the director of The Scorpion King, Chuck Russell enjoyed watching Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Michael Clarke Duncan on set together. The Rock and Duncan were friends, and it was the former who actually asked the latter to be in the movie.
Both were competitive and, as a result, spent weeks preparing for one specific fight scene. In their exchange, Duncan ended up getting knocked down. According to the Rock, Duncan actually got knocked out, and he was afraid the two would come to actual blows over the exchange.
In the end, they didn't fight because their “friendship overweighed the elbow,” and the Rock called Duncan “a trooper.” Duncan, however, decided to get some revenge. Russell recalled how Duncan went to the makeup artists and had them make it look like he'd been hurt. Duncan managed to fool the Rock by contributing to the “humor” that characterized the set.
- Photo: The Green Mile / Warner Bros./Universal10524 VOTES
David Morse Said Duncan Had 'A Great Soul' But Wasn't 'That Tall'
David Morse played prison guard Brutus "Brutal" Howell in The Green Mile opposite Tom Hanks and Michael Clarke Duncan. When talking about the role in early 2022, Morse described the latter as "a great soul." He continued:
It’s the thing that he came to that movie with. He didn’t have experience as an actor. He had experience as a human being. He had worked for a gas company in Chicago, digging ditches. He worked and lived in a tough environment.
Morse talked about one of the stories Duncan told his cast mates:
Believe it or not, he [got] beat up at school by a bully who would be waiting for him after school. Mike would run from the school all the way home while being chased, afraid of being beat up. One day his mother locked the door, wouldn’t let him in the house. Said, “You turn around and you face that guy.” She made him face the guy. And of course, the bully never went after him again.
But Michael went through his things in his life, so when he got to this movie, he brought all that soul and experience with him. He became an actor along the way, a terrific actor, but he was already a terrific human being. That’s what we really feel when we watch that movie.
Morse also talked about Duncan's size, calling him “big” but not “that tall.” Morse explained:
When I did the movie I was six foot four, he was six foot five, but I was 210 pounds and he was 350 pounds and that was 350 pounds of muscle. He was like almost a whole other human being than me when I stood next to him but to actually get that height of Coffey there were apple cuts, apple boxes all over the (set), trails of them that he would walk along while we walked next to him just to give him that height.
- Photo: The Challenger / Wishing Well Pictures
Jay Leno spoke at the memorial service for Michael Clarke Duncan and talked about his friend's smile. He noted that Duncan's characteristic grin grew "another millimeter" on each end after meeting his fiancée Omarosa Manigault.
Despite being 54-years old, Leno said Duncan had the spirit of a “17-year-old” when they were together. Leno also told the group, "Just to see such a pure heart and pure kindness, and to see it taken so early… There are no sadder words than what might have been."
- Photo: The Whole Nine Yards / Warner Bros.12458 VOTES
Duncan's Former Coworkers Teased Him By Calling Him 'Hollywood'
Michael Clarke Duncan spent years digging ditches for Peoples Gas Co. in Chicago, IL. While working there, his former coworkers called him “Hollywood” and teased him about his acting aspirations - to which he responded they'd have to pay to see his face one day.
His coworkers enjoyed Duncan's demeanor and overall jovial nature. According to former schoolmate Kenneth Lawrence, he was “[a]lways, always laughing, always fun to be around, never said anything bad,” which made him a good choice to play a “gentle giant” in The Green Mile.
- Photo: The Finder / 20th Television
Geoff Stults appeared with Michael Clarke Duncan on The Finder for one season. When talking about his former co-star and friend, Stults said Duncan “was a happy guy and he lived the life he wanted to with his creepy six cats and his dogs.”
Stults also talked about the provisions Duncan made for his animals in his will, pointing out, “His animals are living better today than I am.”
Duncan's love of animals was also clear to PETA's Michelle Cho. After spending a day working with Duncan, she called him “one of the happiest and most genuine and heartwarming people I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. I’m so grateful that he used his deep, soulful voice and that contagious smile to encourage people to care about animals.”
