defense attorney. I say that with great respect; out of the entire cast, we’re the only ones who have remained great friends. As I write this, we’re actually at work on a new project. I believe it’s the first time that any two Goonies alums have collaborated in more than twenty-five years.
Meanwhile, Jeff Cohen, otherwise known as Chunk, quickly became known for his hat collection. Every day he wore a different outrageous hat to set. He had one with a giant moose head, another with a giant pair of hands poking out of the top; when you pulled the strings, the hands would clap. It was a gimmick a day with that kid. But I liked him, which made the fact that my job was to bully him, to poke fun at his weight, to goad him into the “truffle shuffle,” one of the most awkward and uncomfortable parts of filming.
In many ways, Mouth was just the first in a series of roles in which I played, well, a bit of an asshole. Here’s this loudmouth, smart alec, joke-cracking, wise-ass kid; he certainly wasn’t what you would call nice . I followed that up by playing a bitter, abused boy in Stand by Me . In The Lost Boys, I became a sort of rambunctious Rambo, and in License to Drive I am, again, the wise-cracking loudmouth. It would be years before I realized that people were starting to perceive me that way, like so many of the characters I once played.
CHAPTER 7
What a lot of people don’t realize about The Goonies is that Richard Donner picked Steven Spielberg as his second unit director shortly after filming began in Oregon in the fall of 1984. A second unit director is typically responsible for shooting “pickups” (panoramic views, background shots, or “establishing” shots of the film’s setting and location), as well as special effects and action sequences, which might be filmed on a closed soundstage, rather than on location, or with stuntmen instead of the principal cast. But when you’re making a movie as sweeping and epic as The Goonies —with 1984 technology, no less—second unit directing becomes a fairly massive job. That probably wasn’t such a bad thing, because even after wrapping in Oregon (roughly six weeks or so behind schedule), we still had a ton of work to do.
We reconvened at Warner Brothers in Burbank to shoot the remainder of the film—the underground sequences, the pirate ship reveal, and the battle with the evil Fratellis—on a closed soundstage; four of them, actually. Two of those four, stages 15 and 16, are the biggest soundstages on the entire Warner Brothers lot. Generally speaking, Steven would utilize two of the four, working on stunts and inserts and pickups, while Dick was running the others. This meant they were directing concurrently; Dick might be shooting with me on stage 16 at the exact time that Steven was working with my stunt double over on 12. So there were often three or four different versions of Mouth (and all the other principle characters) running around on set—the real me; the stunt version of me, same height, same build, same clothes; and the stand-in version of me. It was all very Invasion of the Body Snatchers .
It wasn’t until we started shooting in Los Angeles that the sheer size of this film began to sink in. For one thing, what was supposed to have been a three-month shooting schedule had ballooned to nearly six months. For another, everybody who was anybody was stopping by to check out the set—that’s when you know you’re involved in a giant project. Harrison Ford, fresh off the massive success of Indiana Jones, was one of the first. We lead him through the caves under the Fratellis’ restaurant, over the log bridge and past the waterfall, and I just kept thinking, this is absolutely unreal. We were taking Indiana Jones— Indiana Jones!— on a tour of what was, essentially, a kid-friendly version of his blockbuster film. After that came a string of random celebrity appearances. Dan Aykroyd stopped by and so did Cyndi Lauper; she wound up
Meanwhile, Jeff Cohen, otherwise known as Chunk, quickly became known for his hat collection. Every day he wore a different outrageous hat to set. He had one with a giant moose head, another with a giant pair of hands poking out of the top; when you pulled the strings, the hands would clap. It was a gimmick a day with that kid. But I liked him, which made the fact that my job was to bully him, to poke fun at his weight, to goad him into the “truffle shuffle,” one of the most awkward and uncomfortable parts of filming.
In many ways, Mouth was just the first in a series of roles in which I played, well, a bit of an asshole. Here’s this loudmouth, smart alec, joke-cracking, wise-ass kid; he certainly wasn’t what you would call nice . I followed that up by playing a bitter, abused boy in Stand by Me . In The Lost Boys, I became a sort of rambunctious Rambo, and in License to Drive I am, again, the wise-cracking loudmouth. It would be years before I realized that people were starting to perceive me that way, like so many of the characters I once played.
CHAPTER 7
What a lot of people don’t realize about The Goonies is that Richard Donner picked Steven Spielberg as his second unit director shortly after filming began in Oregon in the fall of 1984. A second unit director is typically responsible for shooting “pickups” (panoramic views, background shots, or “establishing” shots of the film’s setting and location), as well as special effects and action sequences, which might be filmed on a closed soundstage, rather than on location, or with stuntmen instead of the principal cast. But when you’re making a movie as sweeping and epic as The Goonies —with 1984 technology, no less—second unit directing becomes a fairly massive job. That probably wasn’t such a bad thing, because even after wrapping in Oregon (roughly six weeks or so behind schedule), we still had a ton of work to do.
We reconvened at Warner Brothers in Burbank to shoot the remainder of the film—the underground sequences, the pirate ship reveal, and the battle with the evil Fratellis—on a closed soundstage; four of them, actually. Two of those four, stages 15 and 16, are the biggest soundstages on the entire Warner Brothers lot. Generally speaking, Steven would utilize two of the four, working on stunts and inserts and pickups, while Dick was running the others. This meant they were directing concurrently; Dick might be shooting with me on stage 16 at the exact time that Steven was working with my stunt double over on 12. So there were often three or four different versions of Mouth (and all the other principle characters) running around on set—the real me; the stunt version of me, same height, same build, same clothes; and the stand-in version of me. It was all very Invasion of the Body Snatchers .
It wasn’t until we started shooting in Los Angeles that the sheer size of this film began to sink in. For one thing, what was supposed to have been a three-month shooting schedule had ballooned to nearly six months. For another, everybody who was anybody was stopping by to check out the set—that’s when you know you’re involved in a giant project. Harrison Ford, fresh off the massive success of Indiana Jones, was one of the first. We lead him through the caves under the Fratellis’ restaurant, over the log bridge and past the waterfall, and I just kept thinking, this is absolutely unreal. We were taking Indiana Jones— Indiana Jones!— on a tour of what was, essentially, a kid-friendly version of his blockbuster film. After that came a string of random celebrity appearances. Dan Aykroyd stopped by and so did Cyndi Lauper; she wound up
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