Kurt Russell: People Said I’d Lose My Career Leaving Los Angeles

Actor Kurt Russell revealed that people told him he would lose his career if he traded out Los Angeles for the clear blue skies of Colorado; they were wrong.

Russell told People that his ranch life in Colorado allowed him to do “the things that I want to do on a day-to-day basis.”

“What I want to look at, what I want to be a part of — all the things that Colorado has to offer,” he said. “I wanted to eventually get into the ranching life.”

“When Goldie and I got together, a couple of years later, we both built a ranch there together, where our family has grown up. That was 40 years ago,” he added.

While it makes sense now, at the time, Russell said that people in Hollywood warned that a life outside of Los Angeles would lead to career suicide.

“I wasn’t escaping. I was just living where I live,” he said. “I was fortunate that it really didn’t make any difference. But when I did it, nobody else was doing that. I had many people tell me, ‘Well, that’s goodbye. That’s it.’ I said, ‘Well, we’ll see.’”

“I don’t dislike L.A.,” he added. “It’s just not my preference in terms of how I like to live my life. You’ve got to understand something about the area of Old Snowmass. Everybody who lives there, they live there because they want to. I can’t say that about L.A.”

Russell explained that his children benefitted being close to nature in a life “very different from living in the city.”

“They grew up with a good dose of what nature can offer,” he said. “There are difficulties to it, but there are also great rewards to it. I’m just more comfortable there.”

While Russell traded out the city life long before it became chic, several celebrities in recent years have been leaving Los Angeles for the rural life elsewhere, including Millie Bobbie Brown, Taylor Kitsch, Michael Keaton, Chris Pratt, and others.