Cult king: Sarandon on Princess Bride and other movies
Actor who played Prince Humperdinck says film has become cultural touchstone
It’s a testament to Chris Sarandon’s performance as the dastardly Prince Humperdinck in The Princess Bride that fans sometimes assume he possesses some of the same skills his character did in the 1987 classic film.
This is not to suggest that the many admirers of the film expect him to be as devious, murderous and cowardly as Humperdinck. But they do occasionally envision him as a master swordsman, tracker and hunter. They also might enjoy picturing him hanging out on set with fellow Princess Bride villain Wallace Shawn, who played self-proclaimed genius Vizzini.
“I did no scenes with Wally at all,” says Sarandon. “It’s interesting, because people often say to me, for instance: ‘What was it like doing
People have passed it on generation after generation and it’s become an extraordinary cultural touchstone that I don’t think any of us were really prepared for.
the sword-fighting scenes?’ And I say, ‘I didn’t sword fight.’ I imitate the sword fight at the end of the sword fight. It’s pretty much the same with Wally ’s scene. I come on at the very end of Wally ’s scene and elucidate what happened as Prince Humperdinck, (who) never fails to know, (he’s) the hunter to end all hunters.”
Sarandon did, however, do a couple scenes with Cary Elwes, who played the dashing Westley. Sarandon, Shawn and Elwes will be doing separate events this weekend at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo at Stampede Park, but will also do joint photo ops for fans of the iconic film.
Having the three actors at fan conventions is becoming a fairly regular thing, Sarandon says. Rob Reiner’s film has managed to grow in stature with each passing year. Obviously, there were hints during filming that the cast and crew had something special going on.
But, as with most films, there was no way to anticipate how the end product would turn out or how the public would respond. Sarandon had read William Goldman’s book years earlier and it immediately became a favourite. The script, also by Goldman, was fantastic and Reiner was on an amazing winning streak after directing This is Spinal Tap, The Sure Thing and Stand By Me. But there are never any guarantees, he says.
“There is no way to know when you do a movie, it’s such a gossamer kind of experience,” said Sarandon. “Not only is the shooting important, the casting is important, the director is important, the screenplay is important, but also just the timing of the release and how it’s perceived by the public. In our case, for instance, it wasn’t that the movie was badly received, but it had a kind of tepid initial release. The movie really has been discovered over time via television and, at first, VHS and then DVD and now Blu-ray. People have passed it on generation after generation and it’s become an extraordinary cultural touchstone that I don’t think any of us were really prepared for.”
In fact, the film has become so widely embraced that it’s hard to define The Princess Bride as a cult movie. But as memorable as Sarandon was as the loathsome Prince of Florin, his career is full of roles that make him a perfect fit for fan conventions. After an early career in theatre and soap operas, he made his film debut in Sidney Lumet’s 1975 classic Dog Day Afternoon.
In what was considered a golden age of daring and quality films, Dog Day is generally regarded as one of the best of the 1970s. Sarandon received an Oscar nomination playing Leon Shermer, the pre-op transgender wife of Al Pacino’s desperate bank robber Sonny Wortik.
It was an auspicious entry into the world of cinema. Since then, he has studiously avoided typecasting in a remarkable career that has seen him play everything from a demon in the oddball 1977 shocker The Sentinel to Jesus in the 1980 TV movie The Day Christ Died, while continuing to work onstage.
But, alongside The Princess Bride, the films he tends to be asked about most at fan conventions include Tom Holland’s 1985 teen-horror classic Fright Night, in which he played a debonair vampire, and Tim Burton’s 1993 stop-motion animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas, in which he voiced the role of Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king of Halloween Town.
“It also has an enormous following,” Sarandon says about Burton’s film. “You knew you were doing something extraordinary or special, but there was no way to know it was to become this major cultural phenomenon.”
Sarandon was even less certain about 1988’s Child’s Play, where he was again enlisted by writerdirector Holland. This time he played the good guy, a heroic police detective investigating murders committed by a possessed doll named Chucky.
“Halfway through the film, we thought ‘How is this going to work?’ ” Sarandon says with a laugh. “Working with different iterations of the doll was a labour of blood, sweat and tears. It was very difficult. But Tom Holland had it all in his head and he carried it off. I’m giving all appreciation to Tom for that one.”
As horror buffs know, Chucky went on to become a cultural touchstone all his own, command- ing an endless number of sequels. Actually, there’s been seven films altogether, including 2017’s Cult of Chucky. One gets the impression Sarandon has not watched all of them. Or any of them, for that matter. He admits he’s not overly invested in the series.
“The first one was the first one and I’ve moved on,” he says. “I don’t really think in terms of, ‘Oh, they’re ruining my series of great American films.’ It is what it is.”
Chris Sarandon will appear at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Stampede Park.