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Andy Griffith once had a dream that he killed Don Knotts
In his first job after wrapping The Andy Griffith Show, the actor was given quite a scare.
People who have never had a stressful dream, consider yourself lucky. How many times have you fallen asleep and woken up in your old school, preparing to take a test that you've never studied for? Or what about dreams where you show up late to important meetings, or say the wrong things at a party, to the horror of every other guest?
Dreams like these are a product of our own anxieties. Our stress has nowhere to go, so it manifests in our subconscious. While every stress nightmare is awful, we think that Andy Griffith's dream during his first acting project post-The Andy Griffith Show might just take the cake.
"I dreamed I killed Don Knotts," said Griffith during an interview with the Sioux City Journal. "I woke up the next morning and my conscience was killing me. I called Don and couldn't find him anywhere. I finally went to work...shot the scene and called my shrink."
As the master of his own mind, Griffith was able to decipher the message that his dreams were sending to him. "'I said, 'Listen, I had this nightmare but I think I've analyzed what it was. I think I was killing my character, my image, and it bothered me.' He [Griffith's shrink] said, 'Yeah, that's right. That's what you were doing. Isn't that funny, I was killing the image of Andy Taylor that day and it bothered me to the point that I had that nightmare."
The stress wasn't unwarranted; after he had wrapped filming on The Andy Griffith Show, Griffith had a difficult time locking down another project.
"After I did the old Griffith Show for eight years I thought I was hot stuff and I was going to go right into motion pictures and do just anything I wanted to," said Griffith. "Well, I didn't, and I hung around trying to get a job for a while. In order to survive, I played heavies. And now, that's what I'm considered. I'm not considered a comedy actor anymore. Maybe after Matlock, I'll be considered a lawyer or something. Television is a funny business."
We're not sure if Knotts ever discovered that he was the subject of Griffith's stress dream, but as an actor himself, we're sure he'd let it slide...maybe.
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3 Comments
Actors are a strange bunch. Always appear normal and secure on the outside but seem to have alot of inner issues.
I guess that's what happens when you choose to pretend you're always somebody else. 🤔
