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Interview by Jeff Hayes
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Most people who crossed paths with our favorite femme-fatale, Angela, found themselves wrapped in black plastic. There weren't many exceptions. "Kenny" ended up becoming a reptile storage tank, "Billy" became a post-mortem bee-hive...BUT what about their good buddy "Mike" who ridiculed Angie and Rick just as much!!? Mike not only helped tease Angela but also had fun giving cousin "Ricky" a hard time...and worst yet, he locked lips with Angela's #1 nemisis: the prudey Judy!! Still, "Mike" walked out of SLEEPAWAY CAMP alive! Leaves ya guessing doesn't it?? Well, I recently had the pleasure of catching up with "Mike" himself: TOM VAN DELL. Just what has he been up to these days...and what does he think about the whole mystery? Let's find out:
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| JH: | |
How did you get involved with SLEEPAWAY CAMP? |
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My agent sent me out on a casting call for the film, no particular role. I hit it off with the director because I played Lacrosse (go figure) and after several call backs got the role of Mike. |
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| JH: | |
What was it like for you on the set? |
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Like a big party. I really liked the people (cast and crew) that we got to work with on the project. It was kind of like going away to college, but without the school work. But like any move project you also had to wait around a lot in between takes, and hanging with people you like makes that much easier. |
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| JH: | |
Who did you hang around with most during the making of SLEEPAWAY...and what did you do for fun? |
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Mostly Rick and John. We did lots of stuff that young adults at that age do. Talk about and look at girls, we went to see The Clash at one of the Polytech Colleges up there, ate lots of baked goods since there was some form of Freihoffers sponsorship. We mostly enjoyed just hanging out on the set. Even when we didn't have scenes to film we would hang out at the camp. |
Tom and John get High under the summer sky and show off their cool 80's threads! |
| JH: | |
Do you talk to anyone from SLEEPAWAY these days? |
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Sadly enough no. I just sent Jonathan a note since he has a band and I happen to be a Record Exec. We all kind of lost touch after a while. For some time after the shoot I was hanging out with John, Rick and Kathy quite a lot. Great people. |
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| JH: | |
Tell us some fun and interesting stories that you can recall about making SLEEPAWAY. |
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We were all sworn to secrecy about most of the stories. If I told you the really good ones, I am sure Angela would come and hunt me down with an ice pick. Kidding! There are a couple of things I will always remember about making that movie. One day I woke up in my hotel and went to the bathroom. There was a window on top of the toilet and I was doing my biz, just standing there, when a hot air balloon landed right outside the window. They had a Balloon festival at Saratoga and this poor guy must have run out of gas. That scared me more than the movie! While we were filming the fight scene we where kidding around with the locals, who were the extras, so that it would look realistic. We were calling them names trying to get them vibed up to at least make some of the punches look good. Well, it worked, they were pissed off enough to really let a lot of the punches fly. John and I got nailed and actually started punching back. So what you see is not anyone holding back, we slugged it out pretty good that night. But everyone walked away friends. |
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Speaking of Balloons, Tom and his buddies look real sorry for throwing a water balloon at poor little Angela don't they? |
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Tom consoles his good buddy John. "It's okay to have a shrunken penis!" |
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As everyone knows, John cut his hand doing the Canoe scene. When they took him out of the water he had that thing happen, when most guys swim in cold water, shrinkage. It was cold up state, especially at night and in the water. After cutting his hand, the wardrobe ladies dressed him to take him to the hospital and he was pretty embarrassed afterwards.
When he came back he told me the story and asked me to talk to the ladies to confirm that guy's privates really do shrink in cold water and that what they witnessed is normal and that John, (not that I would know), is probably pretty well off under normal circumstances. I told them to watch the extras get out of the water after their skinny dipping scene and that they would also have the same thing happen to them. Well, the director yelled cut and the extras, all wholesome local farm boys, got out of the water. Much to John and my surprise, they all were dragging their privates behind them. No shrinkage problem there since unlike us city boys, they were used to the cold water. The wardrobe girls just looked at John and smiled. I felt bad for both of us that night.
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The cop's mustache thing was funny too. He was a model and they shot some of the scenes when he had his real mustache and the rest after he shaved it off for a modeling shoot. The fake one was so bad, it looked like electrical tape. I still get a kick out of that to this day. |
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| JH: | |
How do you feel about SLEEPAWAY these days and how do you feel about the cult status the film has generated over the years? |
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To be honest with you, I haven't thought about the movie in quite a while. I heard something a while back that it was a cult classic but didn't really believe it. A friend of mine, Dr. Dan Lucas, called me from Phoenix today and told me about your site. I was amazed by the site and some of the other ones I found afterwards. I guess the rumor is true, SC is a cult classic! It was fun to be a part of it and it is nice to see that people like your work even 18 years after the fact. I am psyched that they have it on DVD since I never had a great copy of the movie. It also feels nice to read that most people thought the first one was the best one out of the three. |
Tom puts his groove on and tries to convince Angie to go skinny dipping...And you thought ARTIE was bad!
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