Friday, December 18, 2020

Was He Triple-Dog Dared?

Peter Billingsly, aka Ralphie from the legendary A Christmas Story, just revealed a pukey story from filming the classic:

"Well, they totally screwed up, Dan," Billingsley begins. "The scene says he’s dressed as a sheriff. So I put the costume on. And the script says he’s chewing tobacco. Sure enough, the prop man, who’s responsible for the chewing tobacco, comes up to me with a pouch that says Red Man on it. I don’t know the difference, I said, 'What do I do with this?' He says, 'Here, jam it down in here. Don’t swallow, just spit.'"

A little bit of time passed while shooting and that is when Billingsley says it all went south.

"So, I do it, we get ready to go, and about 15 minutes in, the world starts tilting," he tells Patrick. "I start sweating. My stomach starts hurting, and I start throwing up. [Director] Bob [Clark's] like, 'Cut cut. What the hell is going on?' There was the prop man, 'Oh, I gave him Red Man, you know.' Bob says, 'What are you doing? He’s 12 years old!'"

If young Billingsly had listened to the very first piece of advice I brilliantly passed along to the next generation back in 2006, he'd have been fine. Oh well.

 

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