John Wayne was my hero when I was a little girl. His charisma made him larger than life. He was distinctly masculine, courageous, strong, good, right, honest & sincere. A true-blue American hero, but he wasn’t a hero for just America. The whole world loved him. I desperately wanted to be Mattie Ross. For years, I dreamed I could somehow play that role and reshoot True Grit with John Wayne and all the world would be right. I cried and cried when they shot and killed his character in The Cowboys. I thought they really killed the Duke! My dad explained that he wasn’t really dead – he was just an actor and it was just pretend. What a relief!