A Christmas Story is truly one of the most beloved holiday classics out there. Peter Billingsley starred in the film when he was just 12 years old. The memories of that time are still very vivid for Peter, who is now a producer.
Peter recently appeared on the That Scene With Dan Patrick podcast to talk about the iconic film. During his appearance, he revealed a new bit of trivia for A Christmas Story fans that will probably horrify a lot of today's parents.
In the scene where Ralphie dreams of being dressed up as a sheriff, he's chewing tobacco. That was real chewing tobacco in his mouth, Peter shared. The cast and crew quickly learned why a 12-year-old chewing tobacco is not ideal. The chewing tobacco made Peter ill and made for an unforgettable moment on set as everyone tried to figure out what happened.
Peter Billingsley had the honor of playing one of the most iconic characters in holiday movie history. The actor, now a producer, was just 12 years old when he played Ralphie in A Christmas Story. As you can imagine, that's the kind of experience that stays fresh in your mind for years to come.
Peter recently appeared on the That Scene With Dan Patrick podcast. There, he talked about the scene in A Christmas Story where Ralphie is daydreaming about being dressed like a sheriff and saving his family with the BB gun he's obsessed with getting. Peter revealed an interesting tidbit about the scene.
"Well, they totally screwed up, Dan," Peter said.
"The scene says he's dressed as a sheriff. So you put the costume on. And a line in the script says he's chewing tobacco. So, sure enough, the prop man, who's responsible for that — anything the actor touches is the prop man's department — he comes up to me and he's got this pouch and it says Red Man on it, and he flips it open — I swear to God, I don't know the difference — I said, 'What do I do with this?' He says, 'Here, jam it down in here.' He says, 'Don’t swallow, just spit.'"
Peter, not knowing the difference, went ahead with it — a decision he'd come to regret.
"So, I do it, we get ready to go, and about 15 minutes in, the world starts tilting," he recalled.
"I start sweating. My stomach starts hurting, and I start throwing up."
Naturally, director Bob Clark was seriously confused.
"And the prop man says, 'Oh, I gave him Red Man, you know,'" Peter said.
"Bob says, 'What are you doing? He's 12 years old!'"
"So we shut down, I go and lay on the couch in the living room of the set for about 40 minutes until I can get this [expletive] out of my system," Peter explained.
"Then they did what they should have done. Someone had the good idea, they took a bunch of raisins, squished them together and then stuck that in my mouth, and I had brown spit."
Peter noted that a mix-up like that would never happen on a movie set today. "Can you imagine?" he said.
"It was a very different time then. He just gave me straight-up, whole-cut leaf Red Man."
Peter shared that when you make a movie, you never know what will become of it when it's released to the world at large. He's been very impressed by the way people continue to love A Christmas Story year after year.
"To have something that stuck then, and then every decade continues to, there's obviously a deeper core that it's hitting."
