D-Day in Mico

Flounder (Stephen Furst), Bluto (John Belushi) and D-Day (Bruce McGill) after accidentally committing "equus-cide" in Dean Wormer's office in a scene from "Animal House".


Toward the end of the shoot for "For Mexico with Love" we had to go out to Mico again for a few more scenes out in that arid, hilly landscape. They were mostly training scenes with the lead, Kuno Becker, showing the various ways he prepared for the fight with the "bad guy" boxer.

As usual, I was in the truck, waiting. That particular day had our truck next to the craft services truck which meant I would get something to eat every few minutes to pass the time between setups. They had some pretty good chicken so the traffic around the craft services truck was heavier than usual. Late in the afternoon, during an extra long lull in shooting, I saw Bruce McGill, who played the hero's trainer, heading our way for a meal. He gets the chicken, of course, as word about it had gotten around by then. Up until then I had hesitated approaching him but the stars must have been aligned just right that day.

You see, Bruce McGill wasn't your average actor. He was the actor who played the part of D-Day in Animal House, one of my favorite movie comedies. In his first scene in Animal House, D-Day rides up a long staircase inside his fraternity's house stopping at the top landing next to Tom Hulce and plays the William Tell overture on his throat by tapping it out with his fingers. It was brilliant! Well I worked up the courage to ask him if he had really done that. He looked up and didn't answer right away. He simply raised his hand asking me to give him a second while he finished his last mouthful of chicken. He wiped his fingers and mouth clean on his napkin, straightened himself, tilted his head back and proceeded to play.

It was like magic. He played it perfectly, just like in the movie and when he finished he took a bow to our applause. I asked him how that moment in Animal House came about and he said they wanted his character to do something once he got to the top of the stairs but didn't know what. He told him of his special talent and they liked it. Apparently he had been able to do that since he was a kid and so could his brother, who happened to be the camera man on the shoot.

Bruce McGill could have simply answered "yes" and that would have been it but he was nice enough to perform it because he knew that was the only proper way to reply. Plus he was just a very friendly person who hadn't let Hollywood go to his head. If there was any reason for me enduring two months worth of that looney bin it was for that one moment that I will never forget. Thank you D-Day!

Check out this link for more Bruce McGill biography, t.v. and film info.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_McGill