James Caan, America's Twitter Grandpa
Plenty of Hollywood legends have Twitter feeds whose existence they may or may not be be aware of, but no veteran actor has a Twitter feed quite like that of The Godfather star James Caan.
Caan’s Twitter feed feels like it belongs on Instagram, since it is overwhelmingly visual in nature. Caan uses Twitter to promote the occasional contemporary project, article or interview (his recent sit-down with Marc Maron for WTF, for example) but mostly he uses it as an excuse to take a continual stroll down memory lane and revisit the highs, lows and creamy middles of his long and distinguished film career.
Caan has led a remarkable life and collaborated with some of the greatest artists of our time. His Twitter feed is enjoyable on that nostalgic level: it’s fun seeing great old photographs of Caan with costars and directors, many of whom are no longer with us.
Caan’s weird cult Twitter feed is a perpetual reminder how many great films he’s made and memorable roles he’s played. But people do not talk about Caan’s Twitter feed because of all the cool photographs and movie posters documenting the actor’s voluminous filmography.
No, people are fascinated and amused and pleasingly perplexed by Caan’s Twitter feed because he ends every tweet with “End of tweet.”
Why? No one seems to know, though given that Caan is 81 years old, it’s entirely possible that Caan labors under the misconception that you HAVE to write End of tweet at the end of every tweet or the tweet either won’t send or will somehow never end.
After all, if you don’t write “End of tweet” at the end of every online missive then how are the magical elves inside the computer going to know when a tweet has officially ended?
At some point I imagine someone gently informed Caan that you don’t have to write “End of tweet” at the end of tweets, and that he was, in fact, seemingly the only person on Twitter in the entire world to do so but he kept on doing it all the same.
It’s like James Caan is our country’s unofficial Twitter grandpa and the fact that he never seems to have figured out how social media works makes his social media game unique in the best possible way.
At a certain point Caan seems to have figured out that followers were having all sorts of fun with his Twitter account and it had more to do with “End of tweet” than the movies, appearances and memories he’s sharing.
Caan has been having fun with these folks (who include myself) as of late, like when he cryptically tweeted, “You know what I like most about people who don't like or don't understand why I put End of........ End of Tweet.”
This led people to speculate that Caan was no longer in control of his feed, that it had become self-aware instead of deliciously oblivious.
When the eighty-one year old actor took a break from running photos from Cinderella Liberty and Thief to answer a Rap Caviar Tweet about who would belong on a Rap Mount Rushmore of contemporary rappers alongside Drake, Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole with “Future? End of tweet” people were CERTAIN that Caan wasn’t running his own Twitter account.
Caan barely seems to understand social media. What were the odds that he’d be deeply invested in the contemporary Hip Hop scene?
Then again Caan’s son Scott was in a Hip Hop duo called The Whooliganz with producer The Alchemist so it’s not as if the star of The Gambler is wholly without connections to the rap world.
When someone hypothesized that someone else was tweeting for him Caan replied, “No one speaks for me. End of Tweet.”
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this weird new direction for James Caan’s Twitter feed but god knows there are much worse things he could be tweeting about, like his Conservative political beliefs.
Pre-order The Joy of Trash: Nathan Rabin’s Happy Place’s Definitive Guide to the Very Worst of Everything and get access to original articles AS I write them (including articles on Shasta McNasty, Adrien Brody on SNL, Sunset 60 on the Sunset Strip and the notorious second season of Baywatch Nights) and plenty more bonus stuff like exclusive cards featuring Felipe Sobreiro’s amazing artwork for the book at https://the-joy-of-trash.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/cart
Help ensure a future for the Happy Place during an uncertain era AND get sweet merch by pledging to the site’s Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/nathanrabinshappyplace