THE GOONIES Stars Ke Huy Quan and Sean Astin Recall Improvising Famous Lines and Their Experiences On Set

In a fun interview this past week at Fan Expo Canada, the stars of the cult classic film The Goonies,Sean Astin, who played Mikey, and Jonathan Ke Quan, who went by Ke Huy Quan at the time and played Data, talked about their experience in filming the movie, and working with director Richard Donner. Quan was asked about the famous line in which he states he’s setting a booty trap, and Mikey corrects him, saying booby trap. He recalled this fun story about how that scene came to be:

“I’ve never told this story before. It’s not in the script. Sean pulled me aside, he said, ‘Hey, Ke, let’s rehearse lines.’ So we walked off the set and we’re rehearsing lines, and it starts, ‘Hey, Data, where you going?’ ‘I’m setting booty traps.’ He goes, ‘Ke, you mean booby traps.’ I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what I said! Booby traps!’ We both paused, we looked at each other, and Sean said, ‘Let’s do it exactly like that.’ And it ended up being one of the more famous Data lines that I get to quote all the time.”

That’s so cool! Even as kids, they could tell they had magic in those lines. And I think it was all really fostered by the direction of Donner. Astin went on to say that he was allowed to improvise a line that included his brother’s name, who wasn’t able to be in the film. Here’s the story behind it:

“When the Fratellis are shooting at us, when we’ve walked across slick shoes ... when they shoot and the bullet goes off the rock, and I go, ‘Holy Mackenzie.’ I say, ‘Can I say that?’ [Donner] goes, ‘Sure!’ His attitude was basically, if a kid’s gonna do it, if you’re actually doing it in your life and you wanna say that, it should be in the movie.”

Quan went on to add:

“Yeah, that’s what’s so great about Dick Donner, and I think it played off really well on screen. He allowed us to be who we are,” added Quan. “There was a lot of improvisation. I remember they were all constantly swearing and I made a promise to my mom that I can’t swear in the movie. And I said, ‘I want to be one of them, I want to swear.’ So instead of swearing, I said, ‘Holy s-h-i-t!’ And Dick allowed that. He’s like, ‘Oh, you want to do it? Go for it. Have fun with it.’”

That’s awesome! The kids really shone in this movie, and that’s because they were really able to be themselves. I love this movie, and it’s one that really holds up over the years. My kids love it now too. When the actors were asked at the convention about the possibility of the long talked about sequel to the film, Astin said, “Someday, it’ll happen.” And in the Hollywood world of reboots and remakes, I think that’s a distinct possibility.

Via: CB