Q: Stand By Me and Star Trek are great and all, but you know what I really loved as a kid – Toy Soldiers. I spent a lot of hours daydreaming about how I was going to deal with any Columbian terrorists who might invade my school. I loved that kind of thing. And Denholm Elliot was in it! Any particular memories of that one?
A: My fondest memory from that shoot was when we were filming in the quad, after our characters put all the dean’s furniture out on the lawn.
We were between takes, and Sean Astin asked the prop guy to give him a banana. The camera rolls, and Sean is standing there, eating a banana in the most contemptuous, surly way I think anyone ever could. Lou Gosset is talking to him, and Sean throws the banana peel into the trash.
Lou, keeping his anger and laughter under control, deliberately says, “Pick. Up. That. Banana.”
Sean rolls his eyes and picks it up. It’s one of the funniest moments in the film, tells you everything you need to know about the two characters’ relationship, and was entirely improvised by two great actors.
