If you grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, one of the essential voices of the time was the booming one belonging to legendary actor James Earl Jones.
He was the iconic voice of the infamous Star Wars father/villain Darth Vader. He played Terence Mann in the classic Field of Dreams.
He starred in Coming to America and The Hunt For Red October. He voiced the bold king Mufasa in The Lion King. And he got the kids in The Sandlot out of the biggest pickle they’d ever encountered.
One of those kids was Hamilton “Ham” Porter, played by actor Patrick Renna, who told a story last year about his experience with James Earl Jones, who sadly passed away last week.
Renna explained on The Rich Eisen Show that despite starring in the film, he and his young co-stars did not get a lot of screentime with the veteran actor:
“He was there for a day and he had this huge trailer and he’s larger than life and he’s famous James Earl Jones. We’re all like speechless and he was so cool. But, we also were all supposed to have a scene with him and the director changed it to just having Scotty Smalls and Benny in the scene with him. So, we didn’t even act with him. We just, I think, were like, he just looked at us and laughed in one scene.”
It made sense to just have Smalls and Benny enter the house and get to hear the story about Mr. Mertle’s baseball history. They were the most in love with the sport, and had the most at stake in getting back the baseball Smalls had stolen from his step-father.
Despite the other kids’ scene getting cut, Renna said they still got to interact with him on set behind the scenes. He recalled the following cool story:
“None of us had the guts to talk to him. Marty York goes up to him and goes, ‘Sir, I hear you’re James Earl Jones’ or something like that. He said, ‘You were Darth Vader in Star Wars?’ And he looked at him and said, ‘No, I am your father!’ (laughs) It was the only time any of us talked to him. Yeah, it was pretty great.”
What a thrill he gave those kids! James Earl Jones was a gem of a man, and he gave a lot to his fans, both in person and from behind the screen.
via: CinemaBlend
