The 90s was a decade the had no shortage of amazing movies, and the debate about which year was best for movies wages on to this very day. The kids sports movie genre had a number of solid flicks hit the big screen during the decade, and after all these years, The Sandlot remains arguably the best of the bunch.
The flick about a bunch of kids playing baseball and trying to pickle the Beast has kept audiences captivated for decades, and the chemistry between the cast is simply unbeatable. Turns out, things weren’t always easy while filming, and some bribery came into play.
Let’s look back at what happened while filming The Sandlot.
Getting The Kids To Behave Was Tough At First
The Sandlot is one of the coolest kids movies ever made, and it has been able to stand the test of time thanks to many things, including the performances of its young cast. As great as they are on screen, things weren’t always so easy behind the scenes, and at first, it took some time for the kids to find their groove.
In an interview with The Score, members of the cast and crew gave plenty of insight about the process of making the film and what it went on to do. Director of photography, Anthony Richmond, opened up about the difficulties with the young performers early on during the shoot.
“I think the hardest part was probably the first week when the kids were pretty much out of control. I mean, you can imagine with nine kids all that age just not listening, that was tough for David. And after about a week of this, I said, ‘I've got little kids myself so I know how kids talk - can I talk to them?’ So he said yes. So I took them out to the dugout and gave them a little piece of my mind, and spoke to them like they speak to each other,” Richmond said.
Terry Haskell, who served as prop master on set, corroborated this, saying, “Just keeping track of those kids, they were like herding cats. (I'd ask): ‘Where's your glove?’ ‘Uhh … I lost it. I don't know.’ And Squints, you know, with his glasses. I'd look at Squints, I'd go, ‘Squints, where's your glasses?’ And he goes, ‘Well, I gave them to you.’ And I'd say, ‘Well, if you gave them to me, we wouldn't be having this conversation!’”
Despite the early struggles, things would eventually fall into place. However, there was some bribery involved that lent a helping hand.
Squints Makes A Bizarre Request That Worked
Chauncey Leopardi, who famously played Squints in the film, was on board with turning things around, but he had a request for Anthony Richmond to help sweeten the deal.
“And the kid Squints (Leopardi) came up to me and said, ‘OK, we'll be good. But we want something from you.’ And I said, ‘What's that?’ He says, ‘I want a copy of this month's Playboy.’ (laughs) I said OK, so I got it for him at lunchtime and everything was fine after that,” Richmond revealed.
“I've heard that story before. I honestly don't remember, but (it) probably (happened). Bribery is always the quickest way to somebody's heart, right,” Leopardi said.
An interesting thing to note here is that Smalls talks about all of the boys lying about having looked through one of those magazines during the film. Little did audiences know when hearing that line that the actor playing Squints was actually making moves to get his hands on one in real life.
The Movie Became A Classic
Thankfully, everything turned out just fine with filming, and by the end of the shoot, the filmmakers had something truly special on their hands. At the time, there was no way of knowing it, but this movie has forged an incredible legacy that has kept it popular and relevant for a couple of decades now.
Leopardi even commented on the film’s legacy, saying, “Everything I've done has been cool. But it's hard to beat Sandlot. As an artist, everybody wants to have their hit or their big thing that lives forever, so it would be hard to top something that's still going strong - if not stronger - 25 years later and seems to be not letting up at all. I think that we'll be talking about this film forever.”
At the box office, the film may have only grossed $32 million, but that number simply does not tell the full story of how huge it became during the 90s. Sequels notwithstanding, this movie’s legacy is one that simply won’t budge.