Saturday, March 14, 2009

Celebrity Dentist Spotlight: George Hardy

There are basically two types of people in this world: those who have seen the movie "Troll 2" and those who haven't. If you find yourself in the latter group, I suggest you do something about it. I was introduced to this cinematic masterpiece about 10 years ago by some of my, let's say, "more cultured" high school friends.

Troll 2 has recently been heralded as the "best worst movie" and is the subject of a new documentary of the same title. A few highlights that have stuck with me, aside from the spot-on writing and superb acting, were when I noticed a fly landing on the camera lens and then flying away a moment later. Nobody else in the room saw it so we had to go back and watch it again. There was also the point in the movie when a stage hand walked onto the set during an intense fighting scene, realized his mistake, and backed away around a corner. Everyone in the room saw that one.

What I didn't know until this week was that the actor who played Michael Waits, the father of the vacationing family, is a dentist! In a recent interview with Hollywood Insider, George Hardy shares with us how he got involved in such an epic project. A patient of his, who happened to be an actress, told him he should audition for a film being shot in Park City. Armed with only his high school drama background, Hardy was ecstatic when he landed the second lead! He spent the next three weeks alternating between filming and dentistry.

Hardy knew this was no ordinary film when he realized that the crew consisted entirely of Italians who didn't speak English. The lone translator was their wardrobe lady with a background in Italian porn, which is sort of ironic. Do porn movies really need wardrobe people? Hardy thinks that the language barrier was the main reason the movie turned out so weird and remembers sitting in a corner trying, and failing, to make any sense of the script.

Now, 19 years later, Hardy accepts and even embraces his part in one of the worst movies of all time and loves the attention he gets from adoring fans everywhere!

For those of you who still need some convincing, here's a clip I found that highlights some of the wonders of this film, but I strongly recommend just getting the movie instead.


You can't piss on hospitality!

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