Chris Farley and David Spade got into such a huge fight on the set of Tommy Boy that it’s surprising they were able to actually finish the movie afterward. Both Spade and his co-star, Rob Lowe, have told slightly different versions of the story over the years, but the one thing they agree on is that Lowe was the cause of the brawl. During a joint interview with Lowe from 2015, Spade told James Corden that Farley wasn’t feeling well the night before filming began and went to his room while he and Lowe got a drink together. When Farley found out the next day, he wasn’t happy about not being invited.
While Farley and Spade were in make-up that morning, Farley kept taunting Spade and asking him, “How’s Rob Lowe?” This apparently continued throughout the day, culminating in a physical altercation. In 2024, Lowe brought up another occasion when he and Farley had hung out in a hot tub, which sparked an argument between Farley and Spade. However, Spade clarified the following year that the big fight he was referring to was over the drink Farley had missed out on.
As the story goes, Farley came up to Spade on set while Spade was sitting on the ground eating a sandwich and continued with his taunts. By then, Spade was ignoring him, so Farley decided to step on Spade’s hand and mash it into the sandwich he was eating. Spade then threw his soda on Farley, and Farley retaliated by pushing Spade down a small flight of stairs. It was at that point that the director yelled, “Action!”
When Spade appeared on Lowe’s podcast, Literally! With Rob Lowe, in 2020, he elaborated on what happened from there. He explained that he and Farley both stormed off to their trailers without filming the scene they were supposed to. The part that was oddly left out of other versions of the story was that Farley tackled a guy named “Skippy” shortly after his fight with Spade. “Skippy” was the nickname of director Peter Segal’s assistant, David Malloy, who also had a small part in the movie. Evidently, Farley felt he needed to take his anger out on somebody his size, and Skippy fit the bill in that moment.
In a dark turn of events, the Skippy in question was arrested in 2000 for sneaking into Spade’s house and zapping him with a stun gun in his bed. The two traded blows for a bit before Spade chased him off with a shotgun. Skippy blamed his actions on cocaine and was sentenced to five years’ probation and community service.
The post Why Chris Farley Tackled the Director’s Assistant While Filming ‘Tommy Boy’ appeared first on VICE.
