The book explained Wayne was ordered to continuously “dump leaves, sweep them up, and then dump them again” between repeated takes.
The tome read: “Although innocuous in nature, this scene was very important for the production team and had to be done several times in order to get it just right.”
Eventually, the actor – who would go on to win an Academy Award for the 1969 film True Grit. – decided he had had enough.
The book went on: “Wayne was growing weary of the retakes, and somewhere along the way lost his order of operations and found himself sweeping up leaves when he should have been dumping them, completely messing up the shot. The crew was frustrated, but when Wayne realized what he had done, he was even more aggravated and threw his broom down, marching right off the set in what amounted to an exasperated tantrum.”
Luckily for Wayne, it all ended well for him.
