Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, sweepstakes, and more!
Corey Feldman talks ‘depraved’ J.J. Villard’s Fairy Tales, Edgar Frog, and why Goonies 2 will never say die
For pretty much anyone rocking a mullet from 1984 to 1987, it would have been impossible to imagine growing up without the ubiquitous presence of Corey Feldman. Seriously, don't even try to imagine a world without Gremlins, The Goonies, Stand By Me, and The Lost Boys, it's just too scary to think about.
Not to say that he hasn't worked consistently since, but Feldman's '80s output certainly puts him right in line with some other standouts lending their voices to J.J. Villard's Fairy Tales for its inaugural season. Featuring staples of our youth like Linda Blair, Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Keith David, Jennifer Tilly, Warwick Davis, Peter Weller, and more, the "depraved" Adult Swim show wraps up June 14 with Feldman co-starring in the Snow White episode.
For the record, that's Feldman's descriptor for the show, as the actor phoned in from a far-off location to give SYFY WIRE a preview of the season finale, prefacing everything with a warning for fans of Snow White as she's traditionally been known: "Please use caution."
Of course, since we're geeks, we also had to check in with Feldman on where we stand with Goonies 2, particularly after April's big reunion. And why the heck wouldn't we look into the whereabouts of Edgar Frog these days, too?
But first, we wondered why now is the right time for twisted fairy tales.
"If the world's going to hell in a hand basket, might as well give them some more depraved perversion and mindless entertainment," Feldman jokingly tells SYFY WIRE. "Let's face it, J.J. has a niche for doing what he does, and I'm sure he would be the first to tell you he doesn't mind dredging up whatever political incorrectness it takes to get your attention. He's a daring one, shall we say?"
Granted, that's probably what most folks sign up for.
"At the end of the day, I think people who watch Adult Swim know that it's not going to be for kids, and know that it's not for little kids to understand the jokes or anything like that," Feldman says. "So it's definitely something for adults, and it's definitely depraved, but it's still funny."
And it's not like fairy tales haven't been twisted since day one.
"Let's not have any fooling ourselves into believing that at some point fairy tales were a positive thing. Because they weren't. If you really go back to the stories of what any of these things are about, they're all about terrible, terrible people in terrible situations... you know, old ladies eating children, and having 7,000 kids that you can't take care of and causing welfare problems... it's an endless sea of depravity!" Feldman says. "He's bringing something that's familiar that everyone knows, that's combined with just a twisted take on it. And so everyone's going to love it, I think."
For the record, his episode hasn't given Feldman any reason to look at Snow White in a different way.
"I always thought she was hot, so I don't think it's maybe too far off course," Feldman says, laughing. "You know whenever I see a gorgeous girl with pale skin and blue eyes and dark hair, I"m always like, 'Wow, you look like Snow White.' Okay, well there's a reason for that, cause obviously Snow White was hot. So, this episode just makes sense. You know what I'm saying? It makes sense."
Though it probably makes even less sense, there is something of a Goonies connection to Snow White.
"My history I was part of the Goonies, so that was seven little guys on an adventure mining for gold; you know, I guess you could say the dwarves are on their own little adventure mining for Snow White gold," Feldman jokes.
With talk of a sequel getting fan service for the better part of 35 years, and getting particularly heated after the Goonies recent love fest on Josh Gad's Reunited Apart, we couldn't help but wonder, is this the Goonies 2 we can expect?
"Um yeah, I think a little bit far off of that mark. Nope, not that. Maybe one day in the near future, or the very far off future, but who knows," Feldman says. "I will tell you that that little reunion we did with Josh Gad certainly brought a tearful joy into the hearts of all of us. It was nice. It was really interesting what happened, because literally for probably about a month after that we continued an email thread between all of us, that went on and on and on, like we just kept kind of reflecting on everything that was happening around us, and watching the world together, and it was very interesting because here we all are in our different perspectives and different lives but there's just this common bond where we feel like family, and that's very genuine and very unique."
Apparently, such communication moved screenwriter Chris Columbus, "who was part of the email thread [and] said, 'You know, this whole thing has inspired me so much, it makes me want to go write a sequel," Feldman says. "So you never know, you know, you never know. Maybe there's that little spark that lights a flame and something happens. But then again, we've all been down the road so many times, you just don't know. But there's always a hope. As long as we're all still alive, there's always a hope."
Goonies never say die, right?
"That's the motto!"
But what about the vampire-hunting, comic book-loving Frog brothers from The Lost Boys? Where is Edgar Frog right about now?
"I think he's nursing a bad leg cramp thing, I was told like a sciatica nerve maybe, which would be bad, it would be really bad, that'd mean he'd be laid down for the count," Feldman says, laughing. "But then again, you never know, when Warner Bros. finds enough money, he seems to find his way out of the cave and things end up happening, so you never know."
Out of all the many roles he's appeared in over the years, Feldman reserves a special place for Frog.
"I do love Edgar Frog. Edgar Frog is certainly one of my favorites, because it was for me crossing a bridge as an actor. There's a thing that they do in the studio system where they fight you expanding from who you are. In other words, they want you to play as close to yourself as you are, because that's why they cast you, because they want you as your type," Feldman says. "But then you, as an actor, you want to expand because you don't want to just play yourself, you want to play these great performances, you want to do these great characters, these ideas… so it's always this kind of tug of war creatively. So for me, Edgar Frog was great, because it was like Joel Schumacher did the exact opposite. He gave me rein. He was like, 'Here you go, here's what I want, go create this character for me."
Before that, Feldman had always acted like "kind of more of a puppet, so to speak," so he was surprised by the freedom his director gave him. Although it wasn't exactly 100 percent free rein to create from scratch.
"He gave us barriers where he said, 'Okay, here's what the parameters are. I want you to go watch a bunch of Chuck Norris movies, I want you to go watch a bunch of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies, I want you to go watch a bunch of Rambo movies… and put all of those guys together into one character. And then whatever that character is, show that character to me.' So that's what Edgar Frog was, Edgar Frog was a combination of those three guys," Feldman says. "You know, a little of the bravado of Arnold Schwarzenegger. And then you've got the kind of dumb knucklehead go along with whatever kind of Rambo character; and then you've got the trying to take charge and be on top of everything Chuck Norris guy. And they're all kind of in there, mixed together I suppose."
Three guys who had as much to do with me growing up as Feldman himself. But Feldman thinks that's just part of what unites us.
"We're all affected by the same art. We're all affected, universally, by the same things. We just don't realize how much we have in common with people all over the world. And we're united with those people through film, through music, through art, through books even, literature. There's just so many things that really unite and show us how much we really have in common with people everywhere. But then of course we can look for the differences if we choose to, and unfortunately that's the state of society that we're in: people would rather look for the differences than the similarities."
Feldman's guest spot on the season finale of J.J. Villard's Fairy Tales debuts June 14 on Adult Swim. And his documentary, My Truth: The Rape of Two Coreys, which he's been devoting much of his recent activism towards, is available for streaming now.
