Steve McQueen Was Far Too Old to Play a Teenager in The Blob (1958)

The Blob is a lot of things.

Most of us would agree that it’s a cheap B-movie—it is, after all, a film about a giant alien blob destroying (consuming?) a small town in Pennsylvania—but it’s also in the Criterion Collection. (Kind of an odd choice for the esteemed preservationists of classic cinema, but I appreciate that it’s there.) And it has one of the earwormiest theme songs in film history.

The Blob also became something on accident: It became a launchpad for a bona fide movie star in Steve McQueen. Steve McQueen was a great actor. He was also nicknamed “the King of Cool.” He must’ve earned that nickname later on, but one can assume that he was at least the Prince of Cool at the time, which is still pretty good.

Here’s the thing, though: Steve McQueen is old. For this role, that is. As you know, Steve McQueen was perhaps never actually “old” as he died tragically at 50 years of age. But he is playing a high school kid in The Blob, and he simply is not convincing in that respect from the moment he appears on screen, and everybody knows it.

We could leave it at that, but I choose not to, because it fascinates me.

Consider that The Blob is essentially Steve McQueen’s breakout role. Prior to The Blob, he was in three other films; two of them are uncredited roles, and one of them is a supporting role in Never Love a Stranger (also released in 1958, just three months prior to The Blob). It’s not unusual for an actor to play a high-schooler in their breakout role, of course. But Steve McQueen was a full 28.5 years of age when The Blob was released.

And again: It’s rather obvious! As I was rewatching the film, the wrinkles on his forehead were so prominent I thought that surely he was an adult man who happened to be on a date with a younger girl. (Such things were not as frowned upon in that time, you see.) But then it is confirmed later in the film when Steve McQueen sneaks out of his parents’ house. That should’ve been his house. His forehead should’ve been paying off the mortgage.

Let’s rewind a bit. And let’s be generous and assume that Steve McQueen was about 27 when they were filming The Blob.

I would like to know more about those auditions. This man was not a known commodity at this time; was he just that good? (He was that good, as we know now, but was he that good then?) What was it that made Irvin Yeaworth, directing just his second film, so convinced that this unproven grown man was the right choice for the lead role? In the chaos theory sense of any celebrity’s origins, would Steve McQueen have become Steve McQueen had he not been cast as the world’s oldest teenager in The Blob?

I have to give him credit, though: Steve McQueen, who had been on this earth at least 27 years, knew how to play the game.

As the story goes, he was broke and desperate for a signing fee when he got the gig, but he still had the foresight to negotiate a smaller salary in exchange for a 10 percent share of the profits. The film went on to rake in $4 million at the box office, and Steve McQueen went on to become Steve McQueen. He never played a high schooler again.

The Blob is now streaming on HBO Max, the Criterion Channel, and Kanopy and is available to rent on Amazon.