Kurt Russell recalls kicking Elvis Presley ‘pre-CGI’ in first movie

Kurt Russell is reflecting on his time with The King.

The 74-year-old actor said during an interview Wednesday, March 11, on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” that during the filming of his first movie, “It Happened at the World’s Fair,” he was tasked with kicking Elvis Presley in the shins.

The “Tombstone” actor revealed that in the 1963 film, Presley’s character needed an excuse to meet the nurse (and love interest), played by Joan O’Brien, so he asked Russell’s character to kick him in the leg. Quipping that this was “pre-CGI,” Russell drew laughs from the audience by describing the real-life experience of assaulting the star.

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“He had a pad on him, and everybody was a little bit worried about it,” Russell told Meyers. “And they said, ‘Can I go easy?’ and I had shoes, not sneakers.

“I did it about ten times, and Elvis was like ‘I think he got it, I don’t think I’m worried about that,'” he continued. Russell went on to say that Presley was 27 years old in the movie they shot together, and that he would go on to play the legendary rocker in a film when he was 27.

“This is how cool Elvis Presley was,” the actor said, going on to tell a story about how one day when Russell’s dad, actor Bing Russell, came to set, the “Jailhouse Rock” singer approached to tell him how much he loved the way he wore his hat in Western movies. Presley then asked whether, if he ever did a Western, he could wear the actor’s hat the same way, Russell recalled.

Russell went on to embody Presley in “Elvis: The Movie,” a 1979 musical and drama following his rise to stardom. In the film, Russell’s father played Elvis’s dad, Vernon. “It Happened at the World’s Fair” was Russell’s film debut upon its release at age 12.