Though the premise of the movie seemed simplistic in nature, the 1986 film Stand by Me proved to be more than four boys in search of a body. Based on the novella The Body by Stephen King, the film managed to capture not only the spirit of the original tale, but also the hearts of film fans for generations to come.
The film’s cast included several up-and-coming stars that would go on to lead successful film and television careers. The young leads included Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell. This movie also proved to be significant for other actors as well, including a young John Cusack and Kiefer Sutherland.
This coming-of-age tale became one of the most popular films of the year and stood out to audiences and critics alike. The film went on to received several significant award nominations from the Director’s Guild of America, the Golden Globes, and even the Academy Awards. Stand by Me also holds an approval rating of 91% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Although many fans have basically memorized the movie from start to finish, there is still more to learn about the making of the movie itself. In this article, we will reveal the behind-the-scenes secrets and stories that took place during the making of this cult film. From facing financial struggles to the antics of its young cast, the legacy of Stand by Me comes not just from the finished film, but its creation as well.
Join us as we explore the 25 Crazy Details Behind The Making Of Stand by Me.
The Title Had To be Changed
Plans for the adaptation of King’s story began as early as 1983 with Stand by Me producer Bruce A. Evans. He was inspired to adapt the novella after reading a copy of The Body.
His original plan was to bring the adaptation to life as true to the story as possible with the title of the movie being the same. However, Columbia Studios disliked the title with screenwriter Raynold Gideon even commenting that it “sounded like either [an adult] film, a bodybuilding film or another Stephen King horror.”
Thankfully, future director Rob Reiner selected Stand by Me instead, based on the Ben E. King classic song.
The Original Director Backed Out Due To Exhaustion
One of the selling points for the adaptation of the novella came with the director that was initially attached to the project.
Director Adrian Lyne, known for directing several films-- including Flashdance, originally set his sights on the movie.
However, after wrapping up production on future cult classic 9 1/2 Weeks, he was exhausted from the project. Since he promised himself a vacation after the movie, the start of Stand by Me wouldn’t begin until 1986. Producers could not work with that timeline and, instead, passed the project to director Rob Reiner to complete.
The Four Actors Bonded Before Shooting Began
The heart of Stand by Me lies with the friendship between these four young boys. Without it, the movie simply would not work. After finding his perfect cast, Reiner took extra steps to ensure the young actors accurately depicted this friendship onscreen.
The New York Times reported, “It was in June 1985 that Rob Reiner and the four boys he had picked - out of the 300 who had auditioned - met in a hotel suite in Oregon to play games based on Viola Spolin's 'Improvisations for the Theater'… For a week he did nothing but play games with the boys, occasionally including the writers and some members of the crew.”
The Boys Basically Played Themselves Onscreen
However, the establishment of a natural comradery between the young actors only helped to bring them closer. Although it was a smart move by the director,
Reiner actually established the early success of the film by selecting young actors that best captured each character’s personality.
According to actor Wil Wheaton (who played Gordie Lachance), Reiner accomplished this feat by finding “four young boys who basically were the characters we played.”
By finding actors that possessed the insecurities, passion and even the anger of their characters, Reiner was able to give another level of authenticity to the film.
The Pond Was Created For The Movie (But Still Gross)
The infamous pond scene actually took place in a man-made pool despite looking quite real in the film. However, actor Corey Feldman (or Teddy Duchamp in the movie) explained how the fake body of water soon became part of the surrounding natural forest.
Feldman said, “The thing they failed to realize was they built this at the beginning of the shoot and by the time we got to that scene, it was six weeks later, and they’d left it there uncovered. It was no longer man-made, as far as all the worms and the bugs and the leaves and the raccoons, they were all in there. Nature took its course.”
Jerry O'Connell And The Special Cookies
Much like their onscreen characters, however, the young actors of Stand by Me managed to get into all sorts of trouble onset. In on particular instance, actor Jerry O’Connell managed to get himself into a strange situation.
Actor Kiefer Sutherland (who played Ace Merrill) shared one memory of one of O’Connell’s legendary blunders. While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Sutherland spoke about a time when O’Connell left set by tying up his babysitter and snuck to a local fair to buy cookies.
Unfortunately, the cookies were laced with an illegal substance.
They found the young boy two hours later lost in the woods and shut down production for two days.
The Director Made River Phoenix Cry
Even at such a young age, it was hard to deny the talents of actor River Phoenix. Reiner shared his memories of one particular scene when the actor blew him away.
The Telegraph UK reported, “Reiner asked the actor to think of a time when an adult had let him down. ‘When someone that you really looked up to, and really loved, wasn’t there for you,’ he said... ‘He kept crying after that scene, and I had to go give him a hug. It is a hard scene to play and then snap out of.’”
The Lead Actors Got Into Trouble Onset
Although the young actors showed a level of maturity for the majority of the film, they still managed to get into mischief on set.
How could they not?
In an interview with TheWrap, the stars shared some of the many shenanigans that the lead actors would get into, including putting the furniture from their hotel in the facility's swimming pool.
"It didn’t just dump the furniture in the pool,' [Wil Wheaton] explained with a laugh. 'We arranged it as if it was meant to be that way, like it just happens to be underwater.'"
The Boys Smoked Cabbage Leaves
Obviously, the underage actors in Stand by Me weren't smoking real cigarettes during filming. Director Rob Reiner had particular instructions on the type of prop cigarettes used in the scenes for the film.
In his campaign to reverse an e-cigarette ban in California, actor Corey Feldman used this memory of the movie in his argument, “I regret the cigarette smoking image that we may have projected to kids at the time, even though the cigarettes smoked by the boys in the movie were made from cabbage leaves. Our director, Rob Reiner, an avid non-smoker who campaigned for anti-smoking laws in California, insisted on it.”
The Pie-Eating Scene Was Over-The-Top For A Reason
The now-famous pie-eating scene almost didn’t make it into the film. As reported by TCM, Reiner wasn’t sure how the scene would play out.
The scene was meant to be a story told by Gordie, an aspiring, young writer.
Reiner had to fathom what kind of storyteller Gordie would be. "Ultimately, in my mind, he became Stephen King. And Stephen King is a great storyteller and most of the stories he tells are supernatural or there's horror involved.”
After establishing his type of writer, he then decided “to go over the top with it and make it rather cartoonish, the way it would appear in a young boy's mind.”
The Making of The Projectile Vomit
After deciding on making the scene as over-the-top as possible, the crew began work hard to realize Reiner's vision. The scene itself included residents of the city of Brownsville, Oregon as extras.
The vomit itself had to be created with large mixtures of large-curd cottage cheese and blueberry pie filling.
Even the pies used in the film were purchased from a local bakery packed with extra filling. To achieve the projectile vomit effect, the crew employed “four or five guys to press down on a giant plunger on top of a cylinder, which pushed all five gallons of pie filling up a vacuum hose.”
Corey Feldman's "Firsts" During Filming
The events of Stand by Me served as a coming-of-age tale for the characters of the film, but the young actors themselves also found that the move served as a turning point in their own lives.
For Corey Feldman, in particular, the film holds a special place in his life. TheWrap shared his thoughts on the experience: “I went to my first nightclub, [drank] for the first time, kissed a girl for the first time, shot a music video for the first time, with River for his music…”
His adventures with Phoenix even led to his first experience with using an illegal substance for the first time.
Michael Jackson Almost Contributed Music
As one of the biggest solo artists at the time, King of Pop, Michael Jackson, nearly became a part of this cult classic film. While establishing the soundtrack for the movie, the filmmakers reached out to him to create music for it.
Feldman shared that he spoke with Jackson and he mentioned the production company reached out to ask if he would compose original music or use one of his songs.
Reports even surfaced that he was asked to do a cover of the song “Stand by Me” for the film.
However, the producers decided to stick with the original version and created the '50s-themed soundtrack instead.
Rebecca Romijn Was A Fan Of Her Husband Long Before They Met
Stand by Me became a part of the lives of so many kids growing up in the 1980s. It impacted many people in the lives of its actors as well.
Jerry O’Connell explained to Variety how he found out his own wife, Rebecca Romijn, was a long-time fan of him and the movie. He said, “About three months into dating, my wife is from Berkeley, and I went up there to meet her high school friends.... Her high school best friend said to me, 'You know, Stand by Me is Rebecca's favorite movie of all time. You know she had posters of it all over her room growing up.'”
The Kids Didn’t See the Body Until The Actual Scene Was Filmed
Some movie productions like to employ specific techniques to get genuine reactions from its actors. This may include scaring an actor, letting actors improvise their lines or even tricking their talent with false scenes and direction.
On the set of Stand by Me, the body discovery scene became a major turning point in the movie.
Reiner wanted to capture that moment as genuinely as possible.
According to TCM, they wrote, “The lead actors weren't allowed to see Ray Brower (Kent W. Luttrell) until they unveil him on camera; this method was used to unsettle the four boys and gain the best reaction possible.”
Stuntwomen Were Used For The Train Scene
The unforgettable train scene depicted the young friends in danger. In reality, of course, the actors were never in any real peril, with the production taking extra precautions to ensure their safety.
One additional step they took was employing adult female stunt doubles to portray the kids. Donning the protagonists’ clothing and very short haircuts, these extras performed the stunts in place of the children.
Also, the impending train was not even near any of the stunt workers. The crew used a telephoto lens to shoot the incoming train from a great distance.
Reiner Made The Actors Cry... Again!
Reiner did his best to bring out the best performances of the young actors.
While he tapped into the sadness of River Phoenix for the campfire scene, he later employed scare tactics for the train scene scene.
Wheaton recalled, “We weren't taking it seriously and it was hot and it was hard… I remember Rob yelling at us that we're ruining his movie… We immediately burst into tears. Rob rolled the cameras. It worked. When it was over, I just couldn't stop crying. All the adrenaline, everything was overwhelming. Rob hugged us and thanked us for our good work -- and I still couldn't stop crying."
No, The Leeches Weren't Real
Thinking back to the many precautions that the filmmakers took while making the movie, this rumor was pretty easy to dispel. As fans can recall, the leech scene seemed pretty gruesome at the time, with the boys being covered by the creatures all over.
Much like the man-made lake, the leeches themselves were also created by the crew.
Wheaton confirmed that though they seemed real, they were, in fact, just well-made props by the special effects team. Although some fans would like to believe they used real leeches to get the best reactions from the actors, we are here to tell you it simply isn’t true.
The Hidden Shawshank Redemption connection
The coming-of-age story behind Stand by Me originated from the mind of supernatural and horror writer Stephen King. One of his few stories without the inclusion of fantasy elements, the script was based on the novella The Body.
According to Parade, the short story also shared a home with another cult classic King adaptation: The Shawshank Redemption (from the “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” story).
Both stories could be found in the collection of works called Different Seasons published in 1982. Also, another short story in the collection, “Apt Pupil”, would also get the big screen treatment, though it did not fair as well as the other two stories.
Richard Dreyfuss Wasn't The First Choice for adult Gordie
Reiner focused on bringing the King’s novella The Body to life with the best screenwriters, production crew, and actors he could find.
Perfecting the story included finding the right actor to portray The Writer.
Reiner shared with Variety his early choices for the role: “Finding the narrator was tricky. There was a guy named David Dukes, and he did great, but his voice wasn’t what I wanted. It didn’t have the right tone.”
Reiner finally turned to his own high school friend and actor Richard Dreyfuss to play the role.