Going through puberty as a child actor in Hollywood is hard enough without Clark Griswold commenting on your body in front of the entire crew.
At this stage in 81-year-old entertainment legend Chevy Chase’s career, almost all of Chase’s public appearances are part of some reunion, or a nostalgia screening, or a Midwestern convention talk-back about the classic comedy movies he made back during his peak. Specifically, the National Lampoon’s Vacation film series has been Chase’s cash cow, as Gen X and Millennial comedy lovers collectively decided at some point in the last 20 years that we like the controversial, combative and cantankerous comedy great best when he’s behind the wheel of the Wagon Queen Family Truckster.
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But during one recent reunion event celebrating the film series at Fan Expo Chicago, National Lampoon’s Vacation star Anthony Michael Hall playfully confronted Chase about how he mocked Hall’s pubescent body during reshoots for the first film in the series, suggesting that, even when Chase was at his most likable, he couldn’t help himself from being a cartoon bully brought to life.
Famously, National Lampoon’s Vacation director Harold Ramis had to change the original ending of John Hughes’ script because test audiences were aghast at how dark Clark got in the closing moments of the movie. In the first cut of the film, upon finding Walley World to be closed, Clark cracks and drives the family to the home of park owner Roy Walley before breaking into the estate and attempting to strong-arm Eddie Bracken’s character into reopening the park. Somehow, audiences were less put-off by Clark holding Canada’s greatest treasure John Candy at (B.B.) gunpoint, so, six months after National Lampoon’s Vacation originally wrapped, Ramis brought the entire cast back together to shoot a new conclusion.
Unfortunately for Hall, who was just 14 when filming National Lampoon’s Vacation, he spent those six months between shoots undergoing a massive growth spurt that posed a unique challenge for the film’s continuity. “Puberty kicked in for me,” Hall said during the National Lampoon’s Vacation reunion panel at Fan Expo Chicago. “I was a foot taller and like a different kid.”
“Guess who pointed the shit out right away and made me feel really good about it on set,” Hall sardonically asked the audience as all eyes went over to Chase.
Still, Hall has fond memories of his time on National Lampoon’s Vacation and a good sense of humor about Chase’s ribbing, which didn’t start or end with a few puberty jokes that Hall couldn’t repeat over 40 years later. “I just remember the autograph you wrote me when we wrapped,” Hall said to Chase, “He goes, ‘To Anthony, you’re a regular Robby Benson.”
“And then it was also,” Hall added of Chase’s note, “‘If you’re going blind, you’re doing it right.”
Hall’s fellow former child actor Dana Barron then helpfully reminded him of some of Chase’s other best moments. “By the way, you forgot the pimples,” Barron told Hall. “Remember, Chevy mentioned all the pimples on your face.”
But despite how uncomfortable Chase made Hall feel when he was just a growing, self-conscious teenager returning to set, Hall is still plenty affectionate of his onscreen father. “This is why I love being your son for 40 years,” Hall told Chase of all the fond memories. “I love you.”
Now I see why Chase loves doing National Lampoon’s Vacation events – nobody from Community would ever use the L-word around him.