I played a lost boy in the movie, "Hook" (1991) ask me anything.

At my dorms there were four 15+ story towers facing each other. Every SINGLE night, the same guy would shout out his window around approximately 9pm "GOODNIGHT NEVERLAND" and a bunch of people would respond in kind

was always funny

haha, wow. thats pretty awesome i must say... and very flattering that the line i delivered was remembered in such a way!

Holy ballsack, I love that movie. Do you still shout "Rufio, Rufio, RUF-I-OOOOOOOOO," because I know I do, and I wasn't even there.

lol, no i cant say i do shout that. though y do often find myself laughing like captain hook, and doing the pan-stance with out thinking about it. my gf likes to tease me about that when she catches me doing it subconsciously.

new term: pan-stance.

Sounds like "pants dance" if you say it too fast.

pants dance, thats awesome!

When I was a little girl I soooo wanted Rufio to be my boy toy.

Today, Dante Basco aka Rufio is working with KevJumba

REALLY?!?! dante is working with kevjumba?!?! does he appear in his videos? or is he working behind the sense as an editor or something?

I'm hijacking this comment to say, I'm pretty sure OP worked at knotts berry farm or something like that fairly recently. True?

yes, actually. i ran audio and lighting and what nopt for live shows at knotts berry farm for about two and a half years... how did you know that?

Dude. DUDE! This is probably the last AMA I ever expected to see at the top of the page, and I'm stunned. Hook is one of the dopest movies ever. BANGARANG!

well thanks! ...stunned in a good way or a bad way?

In a REALLY GOOD way! I think it's one of those super epic childhood films that I will never get tired of watching, especially because there is both adult and child humor included. The production and effort put into making that movie is just incredible. You're really fortunate to have that experience in your childhood to keep as a memory for the rest of your life! So awesome.

well thank you very much!

HOLY BALLS, im a 23 year old male who only bat's an eye lid for free food and boobies but YOU SIR have just sent shivers down my spine.

This film WAS my child hood. I loved it and still do, its on every Christmas. I stop what i'm doing and sit the fuck down and tune in. It brings back so much of my child hood!! its like the smell of crayons or the feel of playdoh through my small soft fingers. Its like toy soldiers with parachutes on their heads! its EVERY NURF GUN CHRISTMAS WOULD BRING!!! .... arg you and your team make me so happy, the more i learn in life the sadder and more angry i become with the world. Little impresses me or brings a smile to my face but you..... your forever in my childhood.

Thank you

wow, that was huge, and well written. thank you very much for that. im glad it means so much to you. i must say your comment put a smile on my face. thats going to stay with me. thank you for sharing... and your welcome!

I'm the same way with this movie. I remember my family had it recorded on an old VHS, with the first five minutes missing. I must have watched this recording dozens of times. The VHS is long gone, but now whenever I re-watch the movie, I'm surprised to see the beginning, as well as slightly disappointed to not see any early 90s Christmas commercials.

haha, i had the same thing with the 1986 transformers movie... at what part did your tape begin the movie?

Is yelling "bangarang!" with Robin Williams as awesome as it is in my dreams?

every bit

I bet he's just as awesome in person as you see on TV. Any cool stories from working with him?

he used to come to my trailler and ask my mom, in his little kid voice, "can tommy come out to play??" hes basically a big kid. i had all kinds of fun hanging out with him off camera. he was my best buddy.

the scene where the lost boys are trying to decided to believe in him or not and rufio draws a line and the lost boys who believe in him are supose to goto rufios side. remember it? well i was supose to go to rufios side and be against peter. but i refused, i felt like it would be betraying my freind, robin. i insisted on staying on his side. so you see me run to his side, and stay there, when the others are running back and forth.

When I read the title of this thread, your face was the first to pop into my head when I read "lost boy". (Weird, huh?) Now that I think about it, I think that scene is why you stood out in my head.

lol, well ive been told i was one of the most memorable lost boys. though my line in that scene, "well, welcome back to neverland pan the man" wsas tough, steven thought my laugh wasnt convincing enough, he threatened to sit behind me and tickle me while trying to give that line. haha

Wow, it's crazy how easily the memories just flood back in. Funny story, when I watched this movie religiously (it was my favourite), way back when, I always thought that line was "Welcome back to Neverland, Panda Man." It finally makes sense!

So much respect, thank you for taking the time to do this AMA.

haha, thats probly because of my poor delivery. i had the most trouble with that line cause i couldnt laugh convincingly. "panda man" thats pretty funny... but alas, the line was "pan the man"

There you are Peter! The scene where they choose sides!

yeah. though Isah, the kid who said "oh there you are peter" eventually got kicked off the set for mis behaving. which explains why you suddenly stop seeing him. i was told by steven that if he knew that was gonna happen i would have had his lines... oh well, lol

What was that "Imaginary dessert goo of wonderfulness" made of? And, if edible, was it delicious?

haha, well when i had to reptend there was food there, i pretended it was corn on the cob. thers a shot where you can see me trying to eat corn on the cob, copying another lost boy who was doing it well, i wanted to do it like him.

but when there was real food on the table it was whipped cream with food coloring. and we where told not to eat it cause it was covered in fly poison.

Oh, just fly poison.

....FLY POISON.

HAHAHA, yeah... the food sat out all day.

Wait! Didn't you guys fling it at each other's faces? Double wait! Is this you?

yes, we did fling it at each others faces, keep in mind we filmed that scene over three days... and yes, that is me.

"You lewd, crude, rude, bag of pre-chewed food dude!"

lol

Holy shit, you were the cute kid??? My mother has told me all my childhood: "How I wish my kids were this cute."

You, sir, are my nemesis.

Your mom was kind of mean. Its her goddamn fault you weren't cute.

YEAH!!

Best scene ever. How fun was that to film as a six year old?

oh, it was all kinds of fun! most kids get in trouble when they through food, i was told to!

I hate it when through food.

im sorry, lol.

Yeah, I can remember watching that as a child and looking on in jealousy. The pudding shit? So throwable.

Were you in any other films besides Hook?

lol sorry... hook was the only major motion picture i was in, though i was also in a few tv shows, cheers, mad about you, and a pilot for a show called middle ages that never went any where. and a few other things, like a commercial... i was however cast as the youngest brother on home improvment, but they had to recast cause i was busy with hook, and they couldnt wait for me.

more recently though, in my adult life, i have directed 7 short independant films.

You chose wisely. "Home Improvement" was okay. "Hook" is the stuff of legends.

haha, well thank you!

One does not simply be cast as the younger brother on home improvement and then shrug it off. That shit better be on your resume, or list of Top 100 Accomplishments in Life.

haha, well i cant prove it. so its basically just a claim. but i had no choice. they had already postponed production on the pilot to wait for me. hook was supose to be finished at a certain date, but wasnt, it kept going. and kept going. eventually the producers from home improvement decided they could wait no longer and re cast the roll... such is life. i mean, for all the auditions i went on where i got turned down, you kinda get used to stuff like that.

Congratulations on being the envy of every single kid who has ever seen that movie, myself included.

hahaha, well thank you.

This is the first thing I've ever posted...because I've been waiting for something worth it and amazing to come along. AND THIS IS IT.

1) First of all, you were adorable.

2) What was your FAVORITE part about filming?

3) Which other lost boys did you hang out with on set? Any stories?

haha, well thanks!

at the time i was 6 and had no idea about the gravity of what i was doing, it was all just play time for me. i actually became good friends with Robin Williams, he and i hung out alot. i went to his biorthday, he served gummy bears and cool-aid. He used to come to my trailer and ask my mom, "Can tommy come out to play?"

i also spent alot of time hanging out with amber scott, peter pan's daughter. i still have a pic of her and i hanging out in our costumes.

What was is like working with a tiny Julia Roberts?

lol, well actually julia was the only cast member i didnt get to meet or hang out with or anything. i guess she had a stalker at the time, so she had really tight security at all times. the only people that she worked directly with was Robin and Steven... the rest was just movie magic!

I guess she was mostly blue screened and filmed on completely different sets with objects hugely increased in size to make her appear tiny. Having someone on set that's meant to appear normal sized isn't a good use of movie resources.

You mean they didn't really shrink her?

rick moranis wouldnt let us use his shrinking machine

First of all, I absolutely adore this movie. Second of all, is it just me or are the mermaids in this movie pretty much the hottest ones anyone has ever seen in any movie ever? Did you ever get a chance to interact with the mer-ladies when the cameras were off?

there was one mermaid in particuler who i did get to hang out with off camera, though I was 6 at the time, so i wasnt really thinking that she was hot, lol. I have her on my facebook friend list now though.

Easy

1---> You were in Hook with Julia Roberts

2---> Julia Roberts was in Flatliners with Kevin Bacon

Medium

1---> You were in Hook with Bob Hoskins

2---> Bob Hoskins was in Super Mario Brothers with Dennis Hopper

3---> Dennis Hopper was in Waterworld with Kevin Costner

4---> Kevin Costner was in JFK with Kevin Bacon

Difficult

1---> You were in Hook with Charlie Korsmo

2---> Charlie Korsmo was in Can't Hardly Wait with Freddy Rodriguez

3---> Freddy Rodriguez was in Planet Terror with Michael Parks

4---> Michael Parks was in From Dusk Till Dawn with George Clooney

5---> George Clooney was in Ocean's 11 with Brad Pitt

6---> Brad Pitt was in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon

the force is strong with you!

Dude, you were probably my favorite lost boy in that film. For years when I was going to bed I would yell "Good night, Neverland!!!" to my parents/siblings.

Actually, I still do when I have a lady friend over.

haha... i must ask if that creeps the lady friend out

How much money did you make from that role?

alot acutally, though i cant say a specific number as i dont know. unfortunatly, i am one of those childhood actor cases you hear about where their parents spent all their money... only mine failed to pay my income taxes for 3 consecutive years, leaving me with a large back tax debt and no money to pay it off... i can say though that i made enough to owe 20 grand in taxes.

Wow, that's awful - what's your relationship with them like now?

well, lol, we dont speak. though its not all because of that.

Does being a lost boy get you chicks?

haha, yeah actually. infact my current fiance, who i have been with for 5 years, internet talked me cause she was a fan of the movie, for like 6 moinths before we started dating.

What was Spielberg like?

lol, he was like the fun uncle that spoiled you, but protected you from the monsters in the closet.

I love this line : 'Rufio, if I'm a maggot burger why don't you eat me! You two-toned zebra-headed, slime-coated, pimple-farmin' paramecium brain, munchin' on your own mucus, suffering from Peter Pan envy!'

I lol'd.

haha, nice... and im impressed that you remembered the whole thing, lol.

Actually, I used the Internet-Movie Data Base. But I still love the line. ^{_^}

haha... nice... you totally coulda took credit for memorizing it and i would not have known better, lol

How did you get the role as one of the lost boys? Do you still keep in contact with any of the other lost boys?

i just auditioned... i walked into Steven Spielberg's office, pounded my fist on his desk and declaired, "YOU ARE GOING TO PUT ME IN YOUR MOVIE!" ... and thus i got the part.

and i am friends with a few of them on facebook, and we talk some times. mostly Raushan (ThudButt)

Do you ever wish you could have been a Goonie sometimes instead?

haha, that was a good movie. i cant say i have ever had that thought though.

Hook was good too, I was just messin with ya :P

lol, well both movies had a pirate ship, lol.

This is true!

well... pirates are in this year. (see what i did there? lol.)

Haha, I saw what you did

:p

Did you ever get thrown into the boo box?

lol, no i didnt. but the pirate ship was pretty cool!

Can the fat black kid really curl up into a ball and roll?

haha, yes, its one of his many super powers, lol... though if im being compleatly honest id have to say no... there was a double sitting under him, wearing the same pants and shoes and him, and the double raised his legs up and it looked like they where his legs.

[deleted]

while you did miss me yesterday, im back on now answering some more questions, so thanks for posting it anyway...

the line was in fact "welcome back to neverland, pan the man" as sarahbjones points out below.

and over the years many people have asked me if robin was helping me with the line there, and no, he was not. im not sure what robin was doing, or why people think he was lip sinking it to me. my gf pointed it out to me and it does kind of look like it. but i didnt notice till she pointed it out... sorry, but he was not trying to help me with the line, lol.

One of my favorite movies of all time. I was obsessed with the guy who played Jack for quite some time.

Are you still in touch with any of the other lost boys? The one who had the old man's marbles, perhaps? He was my favorite (no offense! you were a close second!)

ah, Raushan (Thud Butt) yeah he is friend on facebook, and we talk some times. we have been talking about possabily doing a documentary on the lost boys, kind of a where are they now type of thing...

though, for the record, the scene with the marbles was supose to be mine. steven didnt know what lost boy he wanted to do it, so he gave me and him the sscript, and was going to have us both read it for him and he'd pick the one he liked better. Raushan read first, and he chose him with out even seeing me read it... even though the producer who saw me read it said he liked me doing it better.

well well. I sense some resentment. Don't worry. Your candle scene was fabulous.

lol, ah, its all good. i harbor no resentment. it was 20 years ago. some people are entertained by that story though, lol.

Which lead actor was the nicest to the extras?

EDIT: Children, not extras. Don't know why I wrote extras...

hhmm... i cant actually answer that, honestly. i wasnt an extra, i was a principle actor, i had close to 20-ish lines.

I don't know why I wrote extras, I meant the Lost Boys in general.

ah, well, basically every one was really great... though id have to say robin was the best. he and i hung out alot off camera.

Were you the lost boy who had hook's wig fall right on your head? That part cracks me up every time. if it was you, was the wig heavy?

haha, yes it was infact me that the wig fell on... there was a guy on a ladder behind the camera, he threw the wig on my head. we did many takes of that shot to get it right, robin kept pulling my (long and curly) hair... atleast they didnt do their original idea where robin takes the wig off my head with the sword, lol.

Did you meet Dante Basco? How awesome of a person was he?

i did meet danta. he was a pretty cool dude, from what i remember. though i didnt hang out with him as much as some of the others. i mean, i was 6 and he was like... i dunno late teens or somethin. lol... actually i remember hearing a rumor a few years ago that he had died... but then i saw him another movie, so i guess not. hehe.

Aspirations for the future?

well, i went to film school and have directed 7 short films. i have a production company, EAG productions, and i am a contracted content creator on youtube... so i hope to make a living doing what i love, which is making videos and movies... also music... i am a musician and just finished producing a solo album with myself playing all the instruments.

so is that you at 0:26?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-5Wf6lZX5A

yes. that was me...

when we filmed that scene, i was originally supose to just blow the candle out. it was not a real candle, it was a little light bulb, and there was a guy behind the camera who was supose to turn the light off when i blew on it. but he could never get the timing right. take after take after take he would either turn it off to early or to late, cause i guess he couldnt see me. finally steven told me to spit on it, loudly so he can hear me. so i did, one time, he got it on the first take, and thats the one that made it into the film.

I saw this movie twice this week! I think the "neverfeast" is my favourite part. Did you get to eat any of the food?

haha, i guess it was on tv on easter sunday, when ever its on i get lotsa people on facebook telling me its on, lol. most of the food was covered in fly poison so we where told not to eat it.

though during the fight i didnt get hit with food that often, so i ended up hitting myself to make it look like i got hit... and there where not enough showers for all the lost boys, after waiting my turn i always got cold water. that was very unpleasant. lol

Did you choose not to continue acting as you got older, or did you find the transition difficult / impractical, or what?

actually, i kind of fell out of it. shortly after production on hook finished, my parents got divorced. and that caused my grades to slip. and a minor you need an entertainers work permit to be allowed to work, and in order to keep the permit you have to keep good grades. so i forced to stop acting. then as a teen ager i got my grades back up and tried to get back into it, but by then reality tv took over and my agent told me there was no market for scripted actors any more. id be lucky to get any work. so i turned my attention toward other things.

That movie gave me nightmares because f the scorpion things, I still can't watch that scene. Who do you still keep up with from the cast?

lol, yeah the boo box scene get me wiggly to this day... but i wasnt on set for that scene. however when i had to walk through the giant alligator's mouth i was terrified... i had it in my head that i was playing dead, and was going to come alive at the last moment and eat me! lol... hey, waddya want, i was 6!

Do you still get random royalty checks from that film?

What is your most popular video on Youtube?

yes, actually i do. though the amount of the checks have gradually dwindelled down, ive gotten checks as small as $15.

i have lots of popular videos, ive been posting weekly for three years. one of my most popular was a class project... a documentary on a fake desease (that i made up) and treated it like it was life threatening. it has thousands of views.

For kids acting in movies, what's the film-set tutoring like?

i liked it better then actual school, there would be one teacher, like 3 or 4 other students, and we only had to be in class like 4 hours a day.

I collect autographs, how could I receive yours? Also, what were Dustin Hoffman and Robin Williams like?

wow, you are the first person to ask for my autograph in years. um, im not sure how i could get it to you, but i wouldnt mind doing it if you like.

Do you consider the part in the film your greatest achievment or do you think you your film making award or another achievment tops it?

the award i won for the short film i directed was, honestly, small potatoes. i am proud of myself for directing the film that won the competition. and ever since hook was finished it was my dream to be a film director. so i am very proud of what i accomplished... but i would have to say my role in hook is a bigger accomplishment, that has reached much more people. even all these years later.

Wow cheers, tbh I would be pretty damn proud If I had been in Hook.

yeah, im pretty proud. though i try not to be full of myself or anything... there was a time when i despised the whole thing. it seemed to follow me where i went. i got made fun of for it alot in school, one of my lines was "your doing it peter" im sure you can imagine what immature school kids could do with that... for the longest times i denied that it was me. i dont any more... obviously, lol.

Yo! Hook was one of my favorite movies growing up and still remains a nostalgic trip to watch and enjoy. I remember being really enthralled with the sets in the movie, specifically the lost boy's island. Were these as entertaining for you as a young actor to be in as they appeared to be or was alot of the magic just hollywood? How functional were some of the lost boy weapons during the final scene? were there any onset injuries during any of the final act?

Also, I saw you mentioned you're still in contact with the actor who played ThudButt, I remember a few years ago there was someone claiming to be him attempting to get money for funding a movie on the internet, do you know if this was actually him or a scam of somebody pretending? If it wasnt him I always found it weird that someone was claiming to be a child actor from particular movie.

the weopons i got to use where all fake. i had a rubber dagger that i remember being very... bouncy ...some of the older boys got real swords. i did do one shot with a tomato launcher, it was a real sling shot. lots of adult supervision around that shot, lol. it was a close up shot on my face, and i had a huge itch on my nose, and even though i was not told not to scratch i did. they said they where going to use that take. i was bummed when they didnt...

far as actual on set injuries... only thing i can remember is that robin hit his head on a camera that was to low, while he was walking backwards for some reason. i dont remember the context...

though, if you notice half way through the movie i suddenly have a gash on my chin. that was a real life injury. my i went skate boarding and fell on my face. the gash was real. but when it healed, they decided to keep continuety, and used make up to put the gash back on my face every day. meant an extra hour in make up every day.

far as Raushan and his movie, im not sure if he tried to get money for a movie, but i do know he did direct a movie, i believe its called 24 hours in vegas. ive seen part of it. he also started a website promoting videos and what not. though i cant remember off the top of my head what the website is called.

If you had a son/daughter that wanted to be an actor like you. What Live-action Remake of a childhood story would you like to have them star in.

hhmm. very interresting question. honestly i dont really want kids... but to answer the question... hhmm... i really gada think about that for a minute... you know what, ima have to think about it and get back to ya, lol

Does not wanting kids have anything to do with the fact that you were, in fact, a lost boy?

haha, i see what you did there...

Did being in the movie ruin the movie for you to watch? It seems like it will never be as magical for you as it would be for someone unfamiliar with it's production.

i wouldnt say it "ruined" it for me, cause it was never like a movie to me. i consider myself a film buff of sorts, so i compleatly understand the effect a good movie can have on some one. i never got the from hook. its little more then old home movies to me. when ever i see it now i just remember what it was like to film it. i guess thats why i dont really see why so many people call it a classic. though i have seen recently how much of an impactthe movie has had on people from their reactions when they learn who i am.