Ted McGinley says life imitated art when he first met Robert Carradine on the set of “Revenge of the Nerds.”
“When we started, we were sort of real adversaries,” he told Page Six in an exclusive interview Tuesday.
McGinley played the jock star quarterback at Adams College, who harassed a group of nerds, including freshmen Lewis Skolnick (Carradine) and Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards), in the raunchy 1984 comedy.
“When I showed up on set, they wouldn’t talk to me, they wouldn’t have anything to do with me,” the “Shrinking” star remembered. “And I was like, ‘OK, so this is where it’s going to be,’ and that’s where it was for quite a while. I truly didn’t like the nerds!”
But relations began to warm when the cast, which included John Goodman and Timothy Busfield, began two weeks of night shoots.
“That’s when it all changed,” McGinley revealed. “We all had to be there together, and so that’s when we became sort of one big, beautiful group.”
In February, Carradine died by suicide after a yearslong battle with bipolar disorder. He was 71.
“It is with profound sadness that we must share that our beloved father, grandfather, uncle, and brother Robert Carradine has passed away,” his family said in a statement at the time.
“In a world that can feel so dark,” the statement continued, “Bobby was always a beacon of light to everyone around him. We are bereft at the loss of this beautiful soul and want to acknowledge Bobby’s valiant struggle against his nearly two-decade battle with Bipolar Disorder.”
McGinley, 67, said he remembers the first time he heard Carradine let loose his character’s distinctive braying laugh.
“Robert was so purely in the moment and so happy to be that guy with this pocket protector nerd pack,” the “Dynasty” alum recalled fondly. “And I remember looking, and I thought, ‘Wow, this is going to be successful … he’s brilliant,’ and so was Anthony Edwards. They were a great team.”
The “Married with Children” alum can currently be seen in the Apple+ series “Shrinking.” McGinley told Page Six that he is still a little gobsmacked about playing opposite Harrison Ford.
“I never in my wild[est] dreams imagined that I [would] get this shot,” he marveled. “I remember always going in on films and thinking, ‘I wonder what it would be like. [I’d] just give anything to see what it would be like to work opposite a guy like Harrison Ford, just the biggest movie star in the world.’”
Fortunately, McGinley was not disappointed.
“It’s amazing. This has been that gift, it’s been that opportunity to just watch,” he gushed, noting that he’s struck by Ford’s kindness to crew members.
“I never thought I would be on a show like this,” McGinley added. “I’m so honored that they would allow me to be a part of it.”
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