Watched: 07/31/2026
Format: YouTube
Viewing: Unknown
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
Absolutely one of my favorite comedies. And, why, 30 years later people still talk about Wednesday Addams.
Still, a movie where everyone is bringing something special.
No real reason to say much about the movie today, so I won't. But just give it a whirl and spot a pre-fame Tony Shaloub as a sailor in a bar, a Broadway famous Christine Baranski - just before she appeared in Cybill and was launched to media fame, as well as Nathan Lane as the desk sergeant, before Lion King made him a thing.
It's unbelievable Raul Julia passed a year later.
Jamie reminds me we did a podcast on Addams Family.
Truly a fun flick, and I'd forgotten Julia died so soon afterwards. Damn.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my few Hollywood interactions when I was in film school. I got an invite to a press conference with the actors, which had me excited & intimidated (Angelica Huston, Hollywood royalty!) Turns out my invite was to the press conference with the kid actors. Most of the writers worked for Teen Beat or magazines like that.
All I remember from it is Christina Ricci seemed spookily distanced and professional; the kid was like 12 and already seemed jaded by the whole publicity thing. The kid playing Pugsley was most interested in showing off his new radio-controlled toy car outside.
That was really my biggest takeaway; here's this whole dream factory/publicity/blockbuster sequel machinery in motion, and for one kid, being on the Paramount lot just meant he could go out the back door and zoom his toy around the alleyway.
hopefully that kid has not been banging his head against the wall of a post-child-star world and is happily racing toy cars somewhere even now. I do remember being sort of worried for Ricci and then Portman as clearly talented young female actors - knowing the industry could chew them up. Ricci is still hanging in there with a career, so maybe that tough shell served her well.
DeleteBut, yeah, finding out "oh, you get to meet the kids" after thinking you'd meet the adult cast members had to have been a bit of a downshift.
The times I did meet genuinely famous adults (not many) generally ended with me stammering like an idiot anyways. So I'm probably better off without another embarrassing memory.
ReplyDeleteAs for Ricci's tough shell, hopefully it worked. And when you're looking for guidance on how to handle being thrown into the maw of the fame machine, I'm sure it helps to have class acts like Raul Julia and Joan Cusack around. Or Angelica Huston, who was born into that world.
Say what you like about the Harry Potter movies... but it was a good thing to fill them with the likes of Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltraine, Emma Thompson, etc. That probably helped those kids stay as sane as they could.