I have to keep reminding myself that I can compose offline in ecto. Oh, related to that: I really like ecto, and feel comfortable endorsing it and recommending it to anyone who is looking for a full-featured offline editor for their blog.
Anyway, I guess AMC ran Stand By Me on DVD TV last night. Apparently, I’m the only person in the world who didn’t know about this, because I got tons of e-mail about it, and it appears that a lot of people who’ve never read my blog before are dropping by today to see what it’s all about. That fills me with performance anxiety, and makes me wish I had one of those “my favorite posts” posts to point you to. Maybe my Best of 2006 entry (which was a cleverly disguised starting point for The Happiest Days of Our Lives ) or a story like Blue Light Special would give you an idea of what I typically blather on about on my particular section of the ‘tubes.
OH! You know what I just thought? It would be totally cool — well, cool for me, anyway — if some readers wanted to leave links to their favorite posts in the comments. That way, I could, you know, lazyweb my way to a “readers favorites” post at some point in the future.
AMC has some really terrific blogs now, including a Sci-Fi blog that John Scalzi’s contributing to. There’s a post in their Future Classics blog that Stand By Me fans will probably enjoy about how Stephen King’s childhood inspired Stand By Me.
I really wish I’d seen it, because I’m always interested to know if other people remember things the same way I did, and because it’s really fun to know what else was going on outside of my 12 year-old acting bubble.
I guess they said that I was “upset” that Gordie never got his baseball cap back from Ace, which isn’t entirely accurate. I remember asking Rob why Gordie didn’t make Ace give him back his Yankees cap at the end of the movie, since it seemed like the sort of thing that should happen if Gordie and his friends “won.” (This made perfect sense to me when I was 12.)
Rob said that Ace didn’t keep the cap, and threw it away as soon as he walked around the corner. It wasn’t about the cap, Rob told me, as much as it was about Ace being cruel.
I learned a lot about filmmaking and storytelling in that conversation with Rob, and I still feel its influence on my creative life.
AMC also said that Kiefer Sutherland was a bully to all of us in real life. I don’t remember it that way at all, though I know Corey and Jerry have both said that he was pretty tough on them — method acting, I guess. It was different for me; I was certainly intimidated by him, but I don’t recall him going out of his way to be cruel or anything when the cameras weren’t rolling. In fact, my two clearest memories of him are being afraid that he was going to accidentally burn River’s face with the cigarette near the beginning of the movie, and that he wanted me to point the gun straight at his face near the end of the movie, which made me nervous, even though it wasn’t loaded.
Okay, one more memory and then I really have to get back to work: In that final scene, when Gordie pulls the gun on Ace, my instinct was to yell at him, like I was trying to intimidate him (again, this made sense when I was 12.) Rob let me rehearse it that way, and then he very calmly pulled me aside and asked me to try it again, but to keep my voice quieter. “Let the gun do the talking,” he said. “It’s more powerful.”
I was 12, so I said that I thought I should do it my way. (Ah, the impertinence of youth, how glad I am to be rid of it.) Rob nodded patiently and said, “Okay, listen to this.” He took a few steps away, and pointed his finger at my face. “No, Ace, just you,” he said. Gravely, quietly, seriously.
Then, he pulled that finger back and held it up.
“Now,” he said, “listen to this.” He took a deep breath, pointed his finger at my face again, and screamed, “NO ACE JUST YOU!”
His voice echoed off the river, as he asked, “Which one is scarier? Which one is stronger?”
I laughed nervously. “It’s scarier when you yell at me, but it’s stronger to be quiet, which is guess is scarier if you’re Ace.” I said.
“So let’s try it that way,” he said, kindly.
People always give me credit for being great in that movie. The truth is, I don’t think I deserve as much credit for it as I’m frequently given. I think back on my limited experience and my silly ideas, and then I see what a magnificent performance Rob Reiner coaxed out of me. The difference is striking.
Stand By Me is a classic film because of Jane Jenkins and Janet Hirshenson, who cast it, Rob Reiner,who directed it, Andy Scheinman, who produced it, and Ray Gideon and Bruce Evans, who wrote it. I was really good at taking direction, so I’ll take a little credit for that, but all of us were standing on the shoulders of giants.
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“Stand by Me” has always been one of my favorite films. My dad also loves this film because it reminds him of his childhood in Hermiston. “Stand by Me” was a great way for us to talk about the past…good times 🙂
As a side note…Andy Lindberg (who played “lard ass”) was a senior counselor at Camp Howard’s Outdoor School Program here in Oregon. I worked with him for 4 years & the junior counselors were not allowed to mention “Stand by Me” or “Lard Ass” whenever he was around. He was a great counselor & a wonderful entertainer….Just thought I’d mention that 🙂
He talks about Stand by me under his FAQ page.
Wil,
Love the site. It is interesting to get to know something about the real you and not just your “film persona.” I have always wondered what you were up to, but I didn’t know you had a blog until I saw SBM on AMC. I am a few years older than you, so unfortunately I can’t claim that the film helped shape my early adolescence as other posters have stated. But the advice given to Chris by Gordie – about becoming anything you want to be – helped to reinforce the decisions I made regarding the direction I chose for my life.
I guess I could be called a geek too, but in a different way. Maybe nerd is more appropriate. Although my dad is a computer engineer (and like you, a writer – two books published), I never became a true techno-geek and I don’t consider myself a “Trekkie” (but I love TNG). I always preferred to read as a kid and never played organized sports (but I loved playing disorganized sports after school with my friends – sort of like ‘Calvinball’ from Calvin and Hobbes). I was in the band (band-geek alert!) in high school. Actually, I never really fit into any of the clicks in school, so me and my buds kinda formed our own. I mainly read about science, specifically the biological sciences. Thanks to awesome Texas history teachers in the 7th grade, I became interested in history and many of my college electives were history classes. That was one reason why I loved SBM – the 1959 setting with the sound track, cars, etc. My kitchen is nothing but real working 1950’s appliances (except for the microwave and the Grind’N’Brew coffeemaker). I own a 1958 Buick and I am moderator of the yahoo 1958 Buick Network. I also set up a phpBBS forum for 1958 Buicks in 2007 (major learning curve). Despite my moderate techno-ignorance, I have had a homepage since 1995. I still hand type my page updates – I can do that quicker than I can by using Front Page.
I haven’t read too many of your older posts, but I love Blue Light Special.
I absolutely loved Star Wars as a kid, but was never into collecting action figures. Money was tight and I never bothered my parents about buying them, and I spent my allowance on instant gratification (candy). [As an aside, you are probably already aware of this, but I just found it today: the R2-D2 DVD projector with Millennium Falcon remote – the ultimate Star Wars action figure that is way cool and way out of my price range: http://gizmodo.com/386007/r2+d2-projector-in-action-video-verdict-a-must-have?autoplay=true ]
I remember watching the first episode of TNG in 1987. I had joined the army reserves and was in advanced training (medical lab tech – talk about people with a warped sense of humor). We were housed in four man apartments instead of barracks and had most evenings off. [Aside: labtech trainees were moved to open barracks shortly after my class graduated, possibly, in part, because of the antics of my class – not as bad as Animal House but close. New labtech soldiers who came to my unit a few years later said they had heard stories about us – Whooop!] I had a 12″ B & W TV and about 12 of us sat around it eagerly awaiting the show. Our first impression of TNG was “OMG!! The Captain is bald!” I don’t know why that struck us as odd and funny but I suspect beer was involved. Anyway, I really enjoyed the show and I still watch the reruns. I was truly surprised, and pleased, to see you on the show, having enjoyed your performance in SBM. I always wondered why you left, but I found out as I read the early blog entries from 2001-2002 (honestly, I won’t have time to read the entire archives, but I’m going to check in frequently to see your new posts). I have found from what I have read so far in the archives that some trekkies do not like the Wesley Crusher character. I honestly don’t understand their dislike, as I thought Wes was a great addition to the story: a smart kid who receives encouragement to use his talents (I can relate to that a little – from the viewpoint of both receiving and not receiving encouragement, probably why I liked the character so much).
Sorry for the long-winded rambling. (not really, or I would have deleted some of it)
Dave
“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” ~Benjamin Franklin
Wil: Thanks for replying to my comment!
Re: The Curse (or was it The Farm? or both?) – I actually thought it was great … when I was 12. Throughout the years, I developed a penchant for horror movies, and bought my own copy of The Curse on eBay several years ago. When I watched it again, I realized that it wasn’t as scary as I’d remembered. The scariest part is probably when Kathleen Gregory calls you Wil at the dinner table. Jokes aside, I think it’s still a must-have for any horror movie collection.
No favourites specifically – rarely do they stand out my mind – but I like the posts about family (4th of July, Aunt Val, etc.), about the kids growing up, about your parents. I like posts about self discovery and posts in which you talk about connecting to fans, their affect on you.
I think that one of the first posts that I read was Spongebob Vega$ Pants, or whichever one first mentioned “William Farking Shatner”.
This does not help you for your “best of” post, but perhaps helps you overall.
You’re all grown up, Uncle Wil Wheaton.
@Saira Bee I love that moment in The Curse, too. The first time I saw it as a kid I thought, “Wait, what? Did she just call him “Wil”? Did they really just let that scene in the movie? Why didn’t they refilm it or at least re-dub it?” I find it fun to watch from a cheesy point of view. It’s a terrible movie but at least it’s still better than “Manos: The Hand of Fate”.
I also loved watching the scene where the chickens are “attacking” Alice. Wait, did she just completely change clothes from when she walked in the barn to when the chickens attacked her? Someone was not paying attention to continuity. (P.S. The Curse is now available on DVD packaged with The Curse 2. Wow.)
I don’t think it completely ruined your movie career, Wil. December was a darn fine movie. Plus I thought no one cast you anymore because you’re not “edgy”. 🙂
And I agree with AT about favorite posts. I can’t point to any right now but those kinds of posts have always been my favorites.
Take care and cheers!
I’d also like to hear a little about Wil’s time on Toy Soliders. I remember reading about some animosity between the actors, and who was to have the lead roles, (with Wil getting the short end of the stick).
I am one of those people that hunted this blog down based on the AMC deal. I don’t know how much of the movie I actually watched because I was obsessed with all the information at the bottom.
I had a “Stand By Me” moment last summer. Leeches in unfortunate places *shudder* hmmm, maybe an overshare?!
Great writing, I’ll be back.
Thanks for the late pass on this post – it’s been a crazy week! OK this is super doof-a-licious but we didn’t get to see SBM until it came onto video because we were too young at 12 and 10 to see it in the theater… Wah! So when it came to video AND I was finally able to convince my mom we should watch it it became iconic for my best friends and myself – in particular me and my friend Alex. A couple years later, she ended up moving to another town kind of far away and we had the whole summer before she was leaving (Hey – six towns away is FAR when you’re 15!) So we ended up having what we STILL call the Stand By Me summer. We would listen almost exclusively to 50’s music -notably the soundtrack, and reminiscing about our friendship and so on and so on. Her last day on our block, we drank Cokes in glass bottles and made a pact (it stuck – we’re 34 and 32 – OK yes I just reminded all of us how old we are – and are still best friends). And this is the super geekiest of all – that night the sky looked like the blue faded huing in the poster for the film which we refer to (still) as the Stand by Me sky. I know this is super sentimental but I thought I should let you know about it anyhow. That film had such an impact. I honestly wonder if it took a group of boys coming of age to help unify friendships of girls coming of age??? I wonder if boys who watched that film took the same things away as we did?
This was super cool of you to post – particularly the process as a young person and actor that this role took you thru. You are so freakin’ cool, man.