When ‘terribly moody’ Steve McQueen came to Hong Kong to film The Sand Pebbles
- Described by the South China Morning Post as a ‘versatile actor’, his wife Neile Adams had other words for him
- McQueen was in town to shoot the sea battle part of the movie, aboard the ‘most expensive film ‘action prop’ ever’
“Steve McQueen Flies In,” ran a South China Morning Post headline on March 23, 1966. The “versatile actor” had arrived the previous day “with a whole film company to carry out location shooting here for the 20th Century Fox film Sand Pebbles”.
The crew arrived from Taiwan, where they had spent several weeks shooting. At a press conference on March 23, McQueen admitted that he found Taiwan “very trying” because “the people there took advantage of them in financial matters”. The film’s director-producer, Robert Wise, also said he found filming there “a bit trying at times”, citing poor weather conditions and unexpected taxes as the reasons.
On March 30, a replica of a 1920 Yangtze river gunboat and four junks sailed into the colony. “Although she may have guns on board, the U.S.S. San Pablo is not interested in making war. The gunboat – built in Hongkong recently for almost US$250,000 – is the most expensive film ‘action prop’ ever,” reported the Post.
“The junks will be destroyed in the sea battle part of the film, a story of gunboat diplomacy on the Yangtze River in the twenties.”
In an interview with the Post, McQueen’s wife, Neile Adams, said of her husband: “He is terribly moody – one word can change his whole mood – but it only annoys me when I can’t understand it.