CURTIS ARMSTRONG (Campus Cop)
Were you asked to be in this because of your connection to 80s college comedies?
I figured that at the time. They called up and asked if I would do it and they sent over the scenes. It's not at all the sort of thing I used to do but it was obviously a teenage sex comedy. Then when I got there, the writers told me it was actually an homage to those movies.
Which generation has it better - the kids who grew up in the 80s watching “Porkies” and “Animal House” or kids raised on “American Pie” and movies like that?
That's an interesting question. I'm not sure that either one gets the better end of it. I think that obviously there's been a huge evolution in all types of films, and in television. Everything has become more extreme in order to shock the sensibilities, which is what it's all about for this type of film. It goes back to the 50s, which I guess was the first big wave of teenage movies. At that time it was a lot easier to shock sensibilities with “Blackboard Jungle,” all the beach movies, and that sort of thing. Then in the 60s there was a whole other wave and then in the late 70s and 80s there was another wave, and now there's another one. Every time a wave comes along they have to work at getting the old folks riled up a little more. That's what they have to do and that's what they are doing.
People recognize you from a lot of your roles. Before you take a role, do you consciously think how you can stand out?
I think that it's partially just because I never look very different. I'm a character actor but unlike a lot of character actors, I don't look radically different from film to film and there was a bunch of them at once. Between “Risky Business” and the end of “Moonlighting” there was just this load of stuff; it was really a good run. They all built on one another in a funny sort of way. "Risky Business" I got out of New York because I was doing a play in New York. The guys who did “Nerds” wanted to see me because of “Risky Business.” And Savage Steve Holland, the guy who did “Better Off Dead” and “One Crazy Summer,” was a fan of both of those movies so he wanted me in his movie. They sort of piled up on one another there for awhile, and it was great for me, wonderful. I pretty much looked the same in all of them and they were always the goofy sidekick roles.
Which film do most people recognize you from?
“Nerds.” Mainly “Nerds” and “Better Off Dead.” As the years have gone by something will get a little ahead of something else, but it's primarily “Nerds.” It's primarily people yelling “Booger” in the streets.
Are you pleased with the way this film turned out?
Yes, I thought it was really nice. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of the current crop of teen movies because there's only so much time and there's nothing that really drives me to do it. So after seeing it - I had read [the script] by that time so I knew all the outrageous parts to it - but it was nice to see how well the more sensitive stuff was handled. It was nice to see that. You can do gross-out until the cows come home but if there isn't something to balance it, then it's not going to work at all. I think it works very well in this movie.
When you were working on “Revenge of the Nerds,” did you have any idea that it was going to become what it has?
Absolutely not - but that was 1984. In 1984 nobody knew what cable was going to be. It was there, but you didn't know where it was going. It was also the first year or so that there was any videotape - right around that period. Those were the reasons “Revenge of the Nerds” and “Better Off Dead,” and all those movies, became cult movies. There was the technology there to support them. If it hadn't been for that they would have run 3 weeks in the movie theatre and disappeared forever. I can remember telling people that I'm doing this movie “Revenge of the Nerds” and I thought that the teen sex comedies had run their course. I figured this would open on an international flight (laughing). That's what I thought; I thought there wasn't any audience for this kind of nonsense anymore.
There's more to "Revenge of the Nerds" than nonsense. It's about class struggle.
Oh it is. It's all of those things but you have to understand that a lot of that was not in the original script. We were there for a week before we started shooting and every day we would go in and work on the script with the producers, the writers, and the director. It evolved while we were doing it and it became really quite a lovely little movie. I have great fondness for it and great affection for it.
And the gross-out stuff you were asked to do?
It just seems so mild now. I mean, belching and picking your nose? Obviously you wouldn't want to know that person but it's not really shocking in today's context.
