My love of John Irving novels began in the early 1990's. I was still a teenager, too young to be left at home alone for a weekend, but too old to be dragged on vacation with my family. Yet, my siblings and I all were forced to a cottage that belonged to a friend of my fathers. On the plus side, the cottage was lined with book shelves, and I dove into The Hotel New Hampshire, which I finished before the weekend was over.
I soon got my hands on other of Irving's novels including The Cider House Rules and The World According to Garp. Years later, when I was older, I caught some of the movies. Irving's novels cover long periods of time, following characters over decades. This makes them difficult to fit into the short time span of a normal movie. Still Cider House and Garp did ok, but The Hotel New Hampshire for me, didn't come close to the magic of the novel.
Irving's novels always include scenes featuring erotic visuals. Not always sex scenes, but scenes with nudity that excited the mind of the teenager reading them in the 90's. One of the memorable scenes from the movie
Garp was the shower scene. I was reminded of the shower scene when the movie recently aired on my retro movie channel. It reminded me I that featured caps from the scene in a previous post back in 2017. (
HERE:)
For those who don't remember the scene, the young Garp, (James McCall) who has an interest in wrestling, follows the school's wrestling team into the locker room after a practice. He's soon interrupted talking to one of the wrestlers when his mother, (Glenn Close) barges into the locker room to get him.
When I first saw the scene, all I noticed was bunch of naked guys. When I recently re-watched the scene, I focused in on one. Starting with the image just above, if you watch the left side of the screen in the video I included, there is one particular hottie who does the lion's share of the nudity.
It starts with a shot of his butt as he walks into frame. Man of the extra's bare their buns in the scene, but I didn't realize until this viewing, that this actor, is the only extra in the scene that goes full frontal. I don't know why I didn't notice the first time, I thought it was a few different extra's that went full frontal, not just one.
This had me wondering who the hot extra on the left side of the screen was. We get a quick frontal when Garp first enters the locker room with his penis in the air when he turns around. It's the same guy whose penis we see when Glenn Close comes on the scene.
My curiosity can be annoying, but I'd love to interview this actor. I'd love to know how he got the part, if he had to do a nude audition. I'm curious if he knew he'd be the only one showing penis before hand, or was that decided in the editing room. Did he sign a specific contract, different than the other extras, was he paid more for the added exposure?
Curious minds want to know curious things, but there's something sort of fascinating about the scene his anonymous anatomy. I saw anonymous, as he doesn't appear to be credited anywhere, not on IMDB or in the movies closing credits. Curios if he's done any other acting, or if this was his only big screen appearance. There is something also sort of great about having your penis on the big screen, and yet still remaining anonymous, telling anyone, or no none along the way.
I'm guessing given the film was made in 1982, the actor would be now, at least in his early 60's. Guessing from his appearance he was somewhere between 19 and 21 when he filmed the scene. Curious minds, curious questions. I'll keep looking for info, but I'm guessing his film full frontal is something he's chosen to keep in his past. Hopefully though, it's something he smiles about from time to time...