Photo Gallery: Stand by Me Celebrates 28th Anniversary
Snakkle talks exclusively with "Stand By Me" casting director Jane Jenkins and cinematographer Thomas Del Ruth about the iconic film 28 years later. By Anna DimondMemorable Stand by Me Line: “I brought a comb. If we get on TV, we want to look good, don’t we?”
Snakkle Exclusive: Just as Feldman fit the role of Teddy, Jenkins says O’Connell was the embodiment of Vern Tessio, a chubby, hapless kid with a big heart. O’Connell at age 11 was “this innocent, funny kid. When he came in, he had no idea who Rob Reiner even was,” Jenkins says (even though All in the Family was still popular in reruns at the time). “He was one of those children whose mother would pin their mitten onto their jacket so they don’t lose their mittens, but then they lose the entire jacket. That was Jerry. And he literally did that—he left the audition and left his jacket behind and had to come back in. And then he looked at Rob—I’ll never forget it, we all cracked up—he said, ‘Hey! You’re that guy. You’re that guy that’s on channel 5 every night, that Meathead guy.’ He had not a clue until he came back in looking for his jacket.”