Judge Reinhold thinks acting career was derailed by ‘executive murder plot’
Judge Reinhold thinks his acting career was derailed by studio politics he has branded an “executive murder plot”.
The 67-year-old actor cemented his fame with his role as gormless police officer Billy Rosewood in 1984’s ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ alongside Eddie Murphy, 63, and John Ashton, 76, but said he hit a major bump when studio bosses started to get involved in killing off actor’s high salaries.
He told Vanity Fair things reached a head when he starred in 1988 body-swap comedy ‘Vice Versa’ alongside ‘The Wonder Years’ child actor Fred Savage, now 47, and said it failed at the box office due to behind-the-scenes wranglings over pay.
Judge – born Edward Ernest Reinhold Jr – said making the film was easy, but “what happened to it” after production was a travesty.
He declared: “It was basically an executive murder plot. David Puttnam, who produced ‘Chariots of Fire’, became the head of Columbia Pictures, and we all loved him because he was a creative and he had done indies.
“The downside with David was he wanted to bring the price of lead actors down, but make the backend profits real.
“I believed him. I really did. And he wasn’t, unfortunately, around long enough to prove that formula.”
Judge added the studio also decided on an ill-timed release for ‘Vice Versa’, which coincided with other 1980s body-swap comedies such as ‘Like Father Like Son’, ‘Big’ and ‘18 Again!’
He said: “What happened was Dudley Moore and Kirk Cameron’s ‘Like Father Like Son’.
“Tri-Star Pictures threw that movie into production while we were already shooting.
“And Coca-Cola owned both companies. When I started the film, I knew that that was a risk to be so closely identified with the other ones.
“I know that it was a premise that had been done before. I didn’t know about the Dudley Moore movie.
“David went public with his disdain for how high the salaries were and what he wanted to do, and he p***** a lot of people off.
“By the time we were ready to be released, he was in front of Coca-Cola saying, look, (‘Vice Versa’) is so much better.
“Just hold on the release of the Dudley Moore movie. He didn’t know, but the guillotine had been set. People didn’t like him, so they wanted him out.”
Even though he said David was a “really great guy”, he added the producer’s move to alter actors’ pay structure didn’t go down well.
He went on: “That’s why I talk about (‘Vice Versa’) in a disappointing way. “I’m proud of the film. It was my first time with my name above the title, and the studio just pulled it (from cinemas) right before Easter break, when it would’ve had a chance to perform.
“It was rough. They kind of buried it, and we watched it all go down. We’d worked really hard.”
‘Vice Versa’ earned $13.7 million at the worldwide box office on a budget of $10 million.
Judge added despite its production woes, people have rediscovered the film in recent years.
He said: “They don’t compare it to the other movies that have the same premise. “I like that, because that’s what we attempted to do, to bring a whole new freshness to that premise.”
