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For decades, many of the most beloved children of the big screen all belonged toOur Gang.
What do you remember about auditioning for Waldo?
I auditioned probably five times for the movie.
They announced this big, nationwide search.
In the beginning it was publicity-heavy, looking for lookalikes for the original characters from the way-back-when.
I was doingFull Housewhen it came across my agents desk.
They sent me in for the pre-read: nothing.
Didnt hear for months and months and months.
Then, they had narrowed down each character to about 10-to-20 kids per character that were in the running.
Its me or him.
There were two Spankys, two Alfalfas, two Darlas.
It was so awkward.
Its not every day that you walk into an audition and youre less than six feet from Spielbergs face.
So that was jarring, because even at 8 I knew who Steven Spielberg was.
Did you watch any of the originalOur Gangshorts to prepare for the audition?
Yeah, I actually had a VHS box set of them that was given to my dad.
I think I read that the other Waldo was more into poetry or something?
He was very much an intellectual and it was more about the intellectual supremacy that made him a villain.
Whereas what they wrote for the new movie, he was just a dick.
You have a big musical number, when you sing Nat King Coles L-O-V-E.
Were you already familiar with that song?
Well, this is a very telling part of the story as far as my very precocious little-kid personality.
What if we did a talent show where you sing perfectly, Alfalfa sings horribly.
And then she looks at me and goes, Oh honey, dont worry though, this is Hollywood.
Well get someone to dub you.
You dont have to sing.
And I was like, Oh no, but I sing.
She goes, No, you wont know the song.
It was an old song, you wouldnt even know the artist, you wouldnt know Nat King Cole.
You wouldnt know the song.
So I started singing L-O-V-E and she freaked out.
She asks, How did we not know that you were a singer?
And I went Well, I wonStar Search.
It was on my resume.
What a little twerp!
Yes, and both of those go back toStar Search.
So the white tux followed me for many years.
They have little cameo appearances, but its really just the kids running the show.
What was that like on set?
I was very much in that world.
I was not good with my peer group!
We were a unit.
It felt like for almost a year I didnt go anywhere without anotherLittle Rascalscast member with me.
It was very much like a weird summer camp just not in the summer.
How did the director handle having so many kids at all times?
Thefamed blooper reelover the credits in the end was very real to what was actually going on.
The on-set teachers and social workers became her big liaisons.
[Penelope] didnt always love it, to be honest!
I definitely remember her screaming at the top of her lungs nottous, and notatus!
but just in frustration at the situation, because it was unlike any project she had ever done before.
I think they wrappedWaynes Worlda few weeks before they went into pre-production forRascals.
it’s possible for you to imagine going from Mike and Dana to crazy kids.
How did you feel about playing the bad egg?
I was like, I cant believe Im being such a jerk to you!
It felt like doing a school play, just on the really high-budget level.
But when it got difficult was when the movie came out.
We became the archetypes of our characters to our peers, to kids.
Because kids watching it arent thinking, Oh, those are actors playing a role.
No, its like, Youre that guy!
When I look back at old footage of press interviews, I was so apologetic.
I was so traumatized!
I still get hate tweets about stealing Darla from Alfalfa, and Im like, Yall!
We are in our mid-to-late 30s.
You all need togive.
I understand that damaged you as a child, but we need to talk to our therapists about that.
I do have to ask about thatbig reveal of your characters father, which definitely hits different in 2021.
Its really jarring now!
And I feel bad for people who are experiencing it for the first time.
Did you actually meet Donald Trump?
And its very weird.
His first demand on set was to have lunch with the kid thats his son like, hedemandedthat.
He takes her and gets her to stop crying and walks her around the Carnival set.
So he was never going to interact with me anyway the whole thing was for naught.
Well, isnt that the perfect encapsulation of Trump as a human?
That it was all for naught.
Are there any other big memories you have from the set?
Your YouTube profile mentions that youre a self-described recovering child actor.
You know, I say that kind of half-kidding and half-serious.
Im still in it.
I want to go to the audition.
I want to do this.
Its different for everyone.
And what Ive found is it doesnt really matter.
It is the thing that all child actors share.
Because that was the total opposite of my parents, it was just shocking to me.
I wish there was some way that we could avoid that.
I wish there was some way that there could be advocates for kids to say, No!
I dont care how much your mom wants you to do it, youre not doing it.
You dont want to be here, so youre not going to have to be there.
We cant regulate that, but I wish we could.
