Shooting The "Truffle Shuffle" Scene in THE GOONIES Was Painful For Richard Donner and Hard For Jeff Cohen
The “truffle shuffle” scene in The Goonies is an amusing scene that a lot of fans enjoy. While it is a little light humor in the movie, it was not an easy scene to shoot for director Richard Donner or actor Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk. I’m sure you all know the scene, if not, I included it below for you to watch.
Donner explained in a past interview with Uproxx that shooting the scene was painful for him:
"There was no direction. I don't take any credit for that, it was just Jeff. He had to stand on that stump and be ridiculed by his friends so he could come in the house, and he did it as best as that character could do it. So much humor comes from pain. Although, I'm sure he was too young to be analytical about it, but I'm sure that was part of his instincts. It was a painful scene."
As for what Cohen thinks, while he looks back on shooting the scene with fond nostalgia, at the time it was hard for him and he had chicken pox. He explained in an interview with EW:
"The Truffle Shuffle for me was really hard because as a fat kid, the last thing you want to do is show your belly to everybody. So that’s horrifying to begin with.
"Another reason I was afraid was because I had the chicken pox at the time... and I had them mostly on my belly. So I knew I would show my belly with chicken pox and it would be a mess."
Cohen says that if you pause the scene, you can spot them. Regardless of being considered the “fat kid” on the film, the actor ended up being the captain of both his high school wrestling team and the football team. He then went on to become an Entertainment Lawyer. He said:
"My clients get a kick out of the fact their lawyer is Chunk. They dig it. With my job, I’m dealing with legitimately famous people, so it’s just silly and fun. I’m usually only the fifth most famous person in the room at any one time."
The Goonies is a beloved classic film, I love the movie and Chunk is one of my favorite characters. Cohen was so damn funny in the role.