![]() Q: What are your feelings about The Toy now nearly 30 years later? Here is a video montage of scenes from The Toy set to the song "I Just Want to Be Your Friend" by Jeffrey Osborne from the film. Truly I was blessed to share time and work with him. Every celebrity or athlete I've ever met wants to talk about Richard Pryor. ![]() How did my life change? All of a sudden I was a "movie star" as people call it, BUT people said "Hey, you did a movie with the godfather Richard Pryor". The producers bought three rows of seats so all the cast/crew could go see the movie opening night. ![]() I was on location in Tucson, Arizona at the time shooting a film I did called Kidco. Scott: It was amazing when the film came out. What changed for you personally after the success of the film? Q: What were your feelings about it when the film was released in 1982? You were only 14 years old at that time. Gleason about episodes of The Honeymooners, singing the Superman theme with Richard Donner (he begged me not to jump off the roof of the house into the pool and told me, "You may sound good, but you can't fly"). &Too many stories really: going to see Poltergiest at the movies with Richard Pryor, sharing laughs with Mr. To this day that still applies as I have run into people from the film, cast and crew and we still have good words and share time talking about the filming. The cast, the crew, everyone really treated me well and most of the time went above and beyond to show they cared. Scott: The Toy was four months of shooting that, of course, I'll never forget. Q: How do you recall your overall experience making The Toy back then? Any other interesting stories or memories about making The Toy that you can share with us? His "eye" for scenes and set-ups was amazing he could just see things before they happened. I tried to watch him as much as I could to see how a director works, but I ended up laughing as much as I did learning things. He'd be laughing and joking quite a bit during filming. His charm and sense of humor was really unexpected as normally a director is very serious during filming and he wasn't that way at all. What do you remember about your experience working with him? What did you learn from that experience? Q: The film was directed by the great Richard Donner. Off screen he was pretty quiet, basically saving the energy he had for his onscreen time, but we had a LOT of conversations during down-time. Gleason taught me how to shoot pool, told me all kinds of stories about his life. He and I got along really better than most people expected as I showed him very early on I wasn't out to steal scenes, I knew WHO he was and appreciated his work. At the core, though, are lessons for the characters in friendship, love and respect. The boy, who can pick out anything he wants at the toy store, is really desperate for somebody to play with and demands that he wants the actual cleaning guy (Pryor) instead of a toy (cue the slavery comparisons). ![]() It is about a spoiled boy (Schwartz) who does not get the love and attention he desires from his wealthy father (Gleason). I loved this film when I saw it as a kid, but looking at it now there are some racist undertones that can be interpreted many of which are due to the storyline. It was the 14th highest grossing film of that year. The Toy is a 1982 comedy directed by Richard Donner and starring the legendary Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason alongside Scott Schwartz. It took 8 auditions, several screen-tests. Scott: I auditioned for it, like everyone else, over 5,000 real actors tried out and another 5,000+ went to their local Toys-R-Us store where they had a contest for a "Jackie Gleason" look-a-like. Q: How did the role of "Master Eric Bates" in 1982's The Toy come your way? From commercials to Off-Broadway to Broadway, 150+ commercials later. A guy there produced some commercials and asked if I wanted to do one. I was going to an "old movie" club in New York City with my dad. ![]()
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