THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 1, 1995 TAG: 9508010025
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Daniel Stern has been hit in the head with a brick and in the face with an iron.
But the only injuries the ``Home Alone'' heavy has suffered may be blistered feet from walking to the bank so regularly.
Kids love Stern. They mob him at malls. They'd like to kick him or sock him - affectionately, of course. But they're surprised that he's just another adult, and not Macaulay Culkin's personal punching bag.
Now, in his debut as a producer, he is starring in ``Bushwacked,'' a comedy that is tailor-made for his fans. In ``Bushwacked,'' which opens Friday at local theaters, he plays Max, an out-of-it delivery guy who finds himself set up to be murdered. With both the law and gangsters hot on his tail, he ends up hiding out in the mountain wilds as a troop leader for six Ranger Scouts.
``It's pretty serious business,'' Stern said as he sat for an interview in Hollywood recently. ``I've done Broadway theater. I've done classical stuff, but none of it is as hard as this type of comedy. It's got to work and it's got to work fast.''
In the course of the movie, he mistakenly drinks bug repellent, mistakes a beehive for a pine cone and has a run-in with a bear. Paul Schiff, who co-produced the new film with Stern, said, ``There is something about Danny's work that is really classic. He is almost a return to vaudeville - from 50 years ago. He is so full of imagination and abandon that kids just immediately connect. He has a willingness to abandon himself and be childlike.''
Sitting across the table for the interview, Stern is an adult businessman - and one who has just been given a unique three-picture deal by 20th Century-Fox. He can direct, producer, write, star - anything he wants. It was the surprise success of ``Rookie of the Year,'' the hit family movie of 1993, that sold the studio on Stern. He both directed ``Rookie'' and appeared as a muddled pitching coach.
Stern considered directing ``Bushwacked,'' but finally decided to just act and be the co-producer, ``as long as I could still get it made the way I wanted.''
What he wanted was for it to have a broader, adventure bent that could also attract older audiences. Once he had the comedy in place, he added an exciting dash down raging river rapids, a rope bridge and a cliffhanger scene.
``I wanted a little of `Cliffhanger' and `The River Wild' in it,'' he said.
His co-producer claims that Stern became a strong father figure to the six young actors who played the troopers. ``They'd do anything to please him,'' Schiff said.
Stern makes little of the connection. ``They asked lots of questions. They were real professionals. Due to child labor laws, we could only shoot six hours a day. We had safety most in mind. We were shooting in mountain wilds.''
Stern, 37, is the father of three children of his own, ages 13, 10, and 6. They, according to him, don't get kidded at school about their Dad being a movie dunce. ``My kids know the business. They love for me to start a new movie, and they always hope it'll have kids in it. They've never been jealous of the kid actors I go off and work with every day. When I was casting `Rookie of the Year,' I had about given up on finding a young kid to play the lead. I was considering my own son, Henry, who read for the part. He told me, `Look, Dad, if it'll help you out, I'll do the part, but I'd really rather not.' As you know I found another great, kid.''
Stern has a long history of serious theater work in New York, where his last show was Sam Shepard's ``True West'' at the Off-Broadway Cherry Lane Theater. ``I had two children and I wasn't making a living,'' he said. ``The final straw came when one of my children saw a rat and thought it was a goat. That's when I decided New York was no place to raise kids. I took off for California, really taking a chance.''
He divides his big breaks into three milestones: ``Breaking Away'' as a blue-collar bicycle racer (``my first Hollywood break''); Barry Levinson's ``Diner'' (``my critical breakthrough''); and the two sequel films, ``Home Alone'' and ``City Slickers'' (``my commercial breakthrough'').
``Most people recognize me from `Home Alone,' '' he said. ``They seem to be surprised that I walk upright and am not hurt.''
Along the way, he's worked for Woody Allen, in ``Hannah and Her Sisters'' and ``Stardust Memories,'' and was the adult voice of the young lead in the ABC TV series ``The Wonder Years.''
He's a little surprised that ``Bushwacked'' didn't get a PG rating. The PG-13 rating came because of two scenes: a urinating scene (which he calls ``the shower scene'') and a naively innocent explanation of sex (which he calls ``the doll scene''). ``Both scenes,'' he said, ``are pretty innocent. I mean we don't really show the dolls doing anything, and there are no cuss words in the movie. I think we might have gotten a PG, but a PG-13 is OK. I think parents will come to the film anyway - and they'll just let the kids come along.''
Next, he's doing a more adult role, in ``Celtic Pride,'' playing a basketball fan who is obsessed with the New York Celtics to the point that his marriage is in trouble.
``I'm a pretty good basketball player,'' he said. ``The hook shot, I've got. I used to be a pretty good rebounder, until I started worrying about my nose. If I injured it, I wouldn't be able to work for months.''
Coming from the guy who suffered all those knocks from that ``Home Alone'' kid, his worry seems ironic. If he's survived those routines, what else can children do to him?
Except buy tickets. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo
Daniel Stern debutes as producer and stars in the comedy film
"Bushwhacked." by CNB