Lea Thompson Net Worth

August 2024 ยท 12 minute read
#Quote1[2012, on Article 99 (1992)] Wow, that's a crazy movie. That movie was interesting because I was eight months pregnant when I did it. My husband directed it, and there was another actress in that part, but the studio didn't like her, so they said, "You picked the wrong person, so get your wife to do it for very little money, 'cause she's already there on location in Kansas, anyway". So, yeah, I stepped in for some poor actress who was fired, and it was a really great cast. Luckily, I was wearing a lab coat, so I could hide my big baby bulge, but I remember I did a lot of frantic scenes with Forest Whitaker, and, y'know, he's a big guy, so I was always afraid I was going to get smashed by him. But I was really proud of that movie. I really loved it. It was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. Now we're going to be having more and more issues with all of the veterans coming home, how we're going to treat them, and the state of health care in this country. I liked what that movie said, and I was really proud of Howard for making it. And sad that it didn't do better... It had an amazing score. Danny Elfman did the score, I remember that. And, you know, both my dad and my husband's dad were veterans, so it felt really powerful to do something for them, something about veterans. I was really proud of that. And, again, I was very pregnant. Poor Kiefer Sutherland had to kiss me. Or maybe just flirt with me. I don't remember if he actually kissed me, but either way, he's got to do this when I'm eight months pregnant... and in front of my husband, no less!2[2012] SpaceCamp (1986) was an interesting movie because, after the first day of filming, we were already 10 days behind schedule. And it kind of kept on that way. It was supposed to be a three-month shoot, and it ended up taking six. We had T-shirts printed up that said, "SpaceCamp: It's Not Just A Movie, It's A Career". Oh, actually, instead of SpaceCamp, it actually said SpaceCramp. That movie was really fun because of the camaraderie we had. It was Kelly Preston, Tate Donovan, Kate Capshaw, and Leaf Phoenix, who later became Joaquin Phoenix. He was only 10 and just a wonderful kid. We all spent so much time together on that weird mock-up of the space shuttle. And then it was, like, the biggest disaster for a movie, because before the movie came out, between the time we wrapped it and the time it came out, the space shuttle blew up. Which was a horrible, horrible tragedy, so, of course, nobody wanted to see a film about a bunch of wacky kids accidentally blasting off in the space shuttle. It was just a horrible situation. Since then, though, I've had a lot of people come up to me and say that they became physicists or inventors, how much they loved that movie and how much it inspired them. That was really sweet and something I never really expected...It was a crazy movie. Very, very difficult and tortured film to make. But we had a great time, we laughed a lot, and we knew each other very well by the end of it.3[2012] Casual Sex? (1988) Well, that was based on a "Groundlings" sketch, and it was a really interesting movie because we basically shot the movie, then they tested it and pretty much reshot half of it. It was really weird. Andrew Dice Clay was designed to be the complete buffoon, then, for some reason, they made me marry him in the reshoots. I've never seen anything like it. This happens a lot, though. Recently, I watched the trailer for it, and they have all these scenes from when he was a buffoon that they'd cut out of the movie but still put in the trailer. So that was bizarre. They actually shot me marrying three different guys in that movie. The whole thing was really weird.4[2012] Red Dawn (1984) was really the most fun I ever had making a movie, because I love Westerns, and I love the idea of being a tomboy, and riding horses and shooting guns. I remember Jennifer Grey and I being, like, tormented but amazed by the politics of "Red Dawn", but the truth is that the story is a fascinating one. The idea was so interesting. The movie is like a really, really low budget of its day. You don't see anything. They talk about how Chicago just fell to the Russians, but you don't see it. We only talk about it. I think it's kind of powerful on that level, that it's more like a play or a book, where the war that you actually do see feels more real as a result. I dunno, I just had a lot of fun being out on the tundra with John Milius and all the craziness that went along with that. And the guys were all so awesome, and we had such camaraderie. Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, who was a madman even then. He was awesomely unpredictable even then, but he was adorable. I just had a really interesting time in the '80s. I tore it up in the '80s!5{2012, on the "Back to the Future" trilogy] Well, I mean, seriously, how lucky am I? That part was such a gift, you know? They just don't come along that great. I've had a few great parts, and that's definitely at the top of the list. For some reason, I just really got her. I got the depressed, beaten-down, drunken Lorraine, and I got the young, silly, oversexed, repressed Lorraine from 1955. Some parts just click in your head, and you just go for it. I remember the audition or screen test - whatever it was - at Amblin, where Steven Spielberg was working the camera. It was just so much fun, playing dress-up and inventing these characters, and then the idea that they let me play four or five more aspects of the same person in "Back to the Future II and III"... It really was such a gift. It's really interesting to me, and to Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale and all of us, how resonant the movie still is to people. I think the themes were even bigger than they thought when they made the movie. The key theme that I think about is the idea that one moment could change your life forever, that one moment of standing up for yourself or having courage against a bully could change your life forever, like when George punches Biff and saves Lorraine. And the idea that, y'know, your parents were young once. They had the same dreams that you have as a teenager and the same passions and know how important that part of your life is. Those are really important themes that continue to resonate, and I think that's why parents keep wanting to show their kids these movies. And grandparents. I feel really, really lucky to be mostly known for that movie and that part. It was a great part.6[2012, on Jaws 3-D (1983)] Well, that was my very first part, the very first movie I ever got, but I lied and said I had done a couple of other movies, so when I showed up, I really knew absolutely nothing. Also, I had said that I knew how to water-ski. And I did not. So I had, like, five days to learn really, really complicated water-skiing things, because I had to fit into the Sea World water-skiing show. I don't even know how to swim! So that was an interesting event. I wiped out a lot. But I pulled it off, I think, because I was a ballet dancer. The acting... was not so good. But I looked pretty good in my bikini, so I think that made up for it.7[2012) Caroline in the City (1995)] was such an interesting thing, because I'd never been on the set of a sitcom or even auditioned for a sitcom when they gave me that part. And I'd just had my second daughter. In fact, she was actually breast-feeding during network notes, which in a lot of eras probably would've been a cause for firing. But anyway, it really was a terrifying experience. I remember I went to see another show taping, because I was like, "I have to at least see what it's like before I have to do it", but after I did that, I said, "I can't do this! This is too scary!" The whole experience of doing a sitcom is... Telling jokes with such precision is really exciting, but it's also terrifying. It was a great job, though. I wish it would have gone on for a few more years. The character of Caroline... I kept saying to the writers, "She's got everything. She's young, she's got a great job, she's got this giant apartment in New York. How are you supposed to care about her?" So it made it interesting to try and make people want to be involved in her life. And to like her, because she kind of had everything except for a man, and I was like, "C'mon, guys, can't you come up with something else besides that?" But it still had a lot of fans, we got good ratings, and I'm really proud of it when I watch it now. I'm always amazed at how funny it was. And I'm still really good friends with all of the actors, which is not all that usual. Usually, you don't really end up lifelong buddies with your co-stars.8[2012] 'Howard the Duck' (1986)_! That's a really interesting movie. I appreciate my career, because I've had a lot of very interesting ups and downs, and most people... That movie is such a famous flop. In a land of a lot of flops, it's kind of awesome to be in a really famous flop. I mean, it's kind of a poster child for flops. A lot of iconoclasts really love that movie. They love to love something that everyone hates. And those are my kind of folks. I'm happy to be part of that club of people who don't want to be told what's horrible and just want to enjoy it anyway. "Howard the Duck" has a lot of fans, and usually when they come up to me, I just think they're the coolest. Because it takes a lot of strength, a lot of perseverance to love "Howard the Duck". That was a really long shoot - it took six months to shoot - and it was a really, really hard part to get. It was a gigantic movie. George Lucas was producing, it had a very big budget, and everybody wanted that part. And everybody wanted the part of the duck! Everybody wanted to voice the duck. The people that they had coming were like, Robin Williams, Jay Leno... all these people wanted to be the voice of the duck, and they were turned down. So it was a really big deal. And it was really fun for me, because, y'know, I got to be a rock star. Everybody wants to be a rock star, right? So, I got to sing and wear really crazy hair. It's unfortunate that it was such a bomb. But, whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.9[2012, on Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)] I never would've done it if it hadn't been for Howard the Duck (1986). I'd actually turned it down. And, then, when "Howard The Duck" was such a bomb that weekend, Eric Stoltz came and said, "Howard Deutch wants to offer you this movie again". I'd already turned it down, and I was like, "I'd better take it". I just kept hearing this voice going, "Get back on the horse!" I was so devastated. So I said, "Yes", and, of course, that affected my life a lot, because I met my husband, who I'm still married to, and we have two incredible daughters. People love love love that movie. I think probably once or twice a day someone comes up to me... You know, if I'm not just sitting in my house. If I'm actually out among other people, someone comes up to me and tells me how much that movie affected them, how much they loved that movie, or that it's their favorite movie, which is really quite extraordinary, because the movie was not a hit. But it's had this incredible life. The opening of "Some Kind of Wonderful" is just so exquisite. The way my husband put together that whole montage that sets up the whole story, it's just so beautifully done. The music, the costumes, the story, they're all still really powerful, which is odd for a movie that's 25 years old. They don't make those movies anymore. I'm amazed at how many people love it. I'm also amazed at how many men really like it.10[2012, on J. Edgar (2011)] That was just really great. Y'know, when Clint Eastwood asks you to come and play, even if it's one scene, you go. He says, "Jump", you say, "How high?" And I was so curious to see how he works. I thought she was a really interesting character. After kind of researching her, I really wanted to see a whole movie on her. She was a real strange cat. She was a witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee, and she decided what line in what movie was a communist plot. I mean, imagine! Kind of kooky. So she and her politics were, like, really whacked. She was one of J. Edgar's beards. She kind of ended up being his girlfriend. It's not really in the movie, but she and another actress were kind of his girlfriends. So, she was also an actress, a stage mom, a writer... I really wanted to know more about her after doing my research. But it was super fun to work with Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer, really fun to do a scene with them, and working in that environment with Clint Eastwood. He runs a set like nobody else I've ever been around. It's very quiet, it's very respectful, but it's very tense in a way, because you only get one take or maybe two. It's very church-like, which puts more pressure on the actors, because it's so quiet and focused. As a director and as an actor, I just really appreciated having that experience in my career, where I got to see how he works. I thought the perspective of the movie was so interesting, and it was brave of Clint Eastwood to make that movie, so I was happy to be part of it.

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