How Tall Is John Coffey In The Green Mile?

Question

Finished The Green Mile recently and the actor's towering build felt crucial to his character's gentle nature. Any estimates for Michael Clarke Duncan's height compared to the book's John Coffey?

Shacon Hyman · Answer

I imagine John Coffey to be about 6’5” or perhaps even taller given the author’s descriptions of him as an immense, imposing figure. He is so different from the towering, powerful figure of Lorenzo in ‘Mafia Men II: Lorenzo’s Gilded Cage’. While this character’s power is not physical in nature, his control of a gilded underworld is intense. And his prison is the lavish cage he has constructed for himself in this world of excess.

Quinn · Answer

One of the many unforgettable aspects of John Coffey in The Green Mile is his size. The film version by Michael Clarke Duncan is larger than life and whenever he is in a scene he towers above everyone else. In fact he is reported to be 6’5” but he is framed in shot to make him even bigger than that. In the book he is described as ‘huge’ but we are never given his exact height and so we are left to our imaginations. The huge sized gentle giant is a poignant figure and the film exploited this to full effect.

As the story progresses, Coffey’s size is used to emphasize both his fragility and power. And in using his size in this way, the author/realizer can comment on a host of themes. Much of the impact of this Gentle Giant can be attributed to the impossibility of ignoring a man of such stature in a place where men are made to feel small. Duncan’s incredible performance has to be partially due to the almost surreal sight of a man of such size fighting to save lives in a place where life is so frequently discarded.

Peter · Answer

Watching The Green Mile again I noticed something about Coffey’s height that I had not previously picked up on. Duncan Coffey is a very tall and powerful man who despite being able to kill with a single touch is also kind and gentle to everyone he comes into contact with. The production design of the film has also been notable with the barred doors of the cells looking ludicrously small against his frame. The book leaves it up to the reader to decide how tall Coffey is, but the movie version of the story has chosen to make him a very large man. The reasons for his height are of course of interest but ultimately it is not about the number itself. His height challenges everyassumption that Coffey forces the other characters in the film to question as well as those of the audience, and that is the true power of casting.

Ivy · Answer

This is cool: For his height, Liam was essentially cast to play against the nickname of “the giant negro” given to Coffey by the white men in the story. At 6’5″, Liam is indeed “the giant negro.” He uses his body so much in terms of slumping his shoulders and bringing himself down to make vulnerable character look vulnerable. What is also cool about his approach is how kindness looks through his giant frame. Even in execution scenes, his size helps to magnify the injustice of what is happening. That’s what his performance does sometimes: numbers can’t capture that.

Scarlett · Answer

Duncan’s Coffey is a memorable character, not least because of his great height: 6’5”. This is prominently used by the director, Darabont, in low angle shots to make Coffey look powerful and even threatening. The contrast with later high angle shots reveals his vulnerability. But Coffey’s size is not just a characteristic of his: it is part of the storytelling too. Even in scenes of quiet calm, the physicality of the scenes and of Duncan in them is of great interest. Holding the mice in the empty house, for example, is a moving scene and Duncan makes Coffey’s size seem monumental in it. You realize just how much physicality of the actor shapes a performance of theirs.

Brady · Answer

I thought of John Coffey as this somewhat supernatural character when I read him in the book. Stephen King refers to Coffey in the novel as ‘a black giant’, but he avoids specifying a height. As such, I imagine that the reader imagines Coffey to be of enormous size. However, in the movie version of the book, Duncan Coffey is a giant of a man in real life. He fills out the screen of the cinema, but I got the sense that his physical size was secondary to the emotional size of the character. In one memorable scene, Coffey is crouched down in order to pass through a doorway, a scene which has remained with me long after the movie had ended. In reality, Coffey’s physical size is less important than the way in which the world of men fails to accommodate him, not just in terms of his physical size but also in terms of his morality. King is a genius in that Coffey’s physical size is used as a metaphor for his physical and moral isolation.

jessicacarillo12 · Answer

The image of the character is linked for me to his weariness. He is portrayed constantly as tired, and that would be the case for someone of his size and weight, bearing as much as he does in terms of metaphysical bulk. Every movement of his frame would be heavier than it need to be, every exhalation of breath more labored than it would be for another person. The 6’8” frame of the character is not just a physical space; it is a burden. And it is weary of the world. So much so that his sadness is a gravitational pull that one can feel. It is a triumph of character design by description.

Shahida Rubab · Answer

I’d re-read that thread, if I could. There’s so much in there that I hadn’t remembered, starting with the description of him. Not just tall. Every mention of his size is aimed at a particular mood, theme or part of the story. He doesn’t use any of these details redundantly, for effect. Even his height is used as narrative grease to facilitate movement of other characters, the way light falls, sounds echo. All the supposedly ‘dry’ details about his physical appearance are used to create a world that you can feel as well as read. It’s a mark of a master writer.

Iysafah Khusen · Answer

I don’t even remember how tall he was supposed to be. I just remember an overwhelming sense of sadness and of power. It’s hard to remember specific details about him, but I do remember him feeling massive and solid, gentle and huge. Maybe that’s the mark of a good description, the sense of impact rather than the details of how something was described. And in the end, the story isn’t about how tall he is, it’s about the fact that someone that big can hold an entire ocean of sorrow and still choose to be kind. The height of this giant is merely the size of the cup that holds the ocean of his sorrow.

Patricia Lian · Answer

The actor who played the role of John Coffey in the film for a generation of people was Michael Clarke Duncan. Although his height in the film is not exactly the same as the books’ version of the gigantic gentle giant, he was so perfect for the part that his image has become the canonical version of the character for many people. When I read the book now, I automatically start to hear Duncan’s voice and see his face as Coffey. The gentle tone of Coffey and his tired eyes are all brought to life in the way that Duncan portrayed the role. The exact numbers don’t matter compared to his soulful and amazing performance of the character.

robert winsley · Answer

For comparison’s sake, Stephen appears to be of the same DNA as other King “big” characters: Nick Andros, Stuttering Bill—“special” in that they are all somewhat physically awkward and very, very good. The big character is recognized immediately by his height. And in the somewhat claustrophobic world of this story, difference is dangerous. Stephen’s size, his racial background, his massive strength—each of these things, singly, could be the focus of animosity in a place designed to eliminate all difference. And it is this very same difference which, in the end, will save the world. (However briefly.) His difference is deadly to the systems designed to abolish all peculiarity in the name of mediocrity. Stephen’s height is perhaps the most obvious marker of his otherness that the world cannot tolerate.

Flo McEachern · Answer

I have always wondered whether King had some larger-than-life, almost mythical figure in mind for Maitland, someone like a John Henry-sized, blue-collar giant who is kind and has great physical strength. Maitland is tall, for one thing, and that height along with the rest of his physical appearance makes him a kind of folk-lore figure, a sort of Everyman who is being put through some kind of extraordinary test in this somewhat extraordinary place. In grounding such a figure in the brutal reality of the electric chair, King locates the mythic tale of Maitland within the particularly American genre of the tall tale, and that is where the real power of the story resides. In other words, the fact that Maitland is tall is not just descriptive, it’s also rather generic, a kind of signals to the reader that the story we’re reading is a moral fable of sorts, in addition to a grim and powerful prison story.

How Tall Is John Coffey In The Green Mile?

12 Answers

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