John Wayne's Controversial Playboy Interview Resurfaces, Twitter Reacts

In a news cycle dominated by presidential campaign launches and the deaths of fashion icons, an interview from almost 50 years ago managed to dominate the conversation on social media on Tuesday morning. The infamous 1971 Playboy interview with late Hollywood star John Wayne has resurfaced on Twitter, prompting shock and disgust from those who had not seen it before.

The western movie icon was in his 60s and nearing the end of his lengthy and successful career by 1971. In the interview, Wayne was asked about a range of topics from working in Hollywood to race and sex. One of the more eye-catching quotes in the interview had to do with discrimination against black people.

“With a lot of blacks, there's quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so. But we can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks,” Wayne said. “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.”

Wayne went on to accuse Native Americans of “selfishly trying to keep [North America] to themselves” in the interview. He also railed against socialism and the depiction of gay sex in 1970 Best Picture winner “Midnight Cowboy,” using a homophobic slur in the process.

The nearly 50-year-old interview circulated on Twitter on Tuesday morning. Celebrities such as director Joe Carnahan and comedian Patton Oswalt took to the site to comment on some of Wayne’s views.

The interview came from a high-profile publication, so naturally, plenty of people had seen it at least once before. There were also tweets commenting on how many people still had not seen it, despite it frequently circulating online.