Matt Frewer on Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, 30 Years Later

It’s hard to believe it, but the kids of “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” are old enough to have backyards and offspring of their own: the much-loved sci-fi comedy turns 30 on June 23, and even though it vied with no less than “Batman” at the box office it earned its own blockbuster status – not to mention an enduring reputation as a fun-filled, family friendly adventure.

With the film currently playing on HBO Now, it seemed a perfect time to revisit one of the key members of the original cast, Matt Frewer, who played Russ Thompson, the loutish next door neighbor of Wayne Szalinski’s (Rick Moranis) and father of Russ and Ron, who inadvertently joined Wayne’s kids Amy and Nick on their micro-scaled adventure. It was a critical juncture in Frewer’s career: he’d already garnered attention as the seemingly CG personality/VJ/commercial pitchman Max Headroom, and by 1989 audiences were getting their first big taste on the non-makeupped version of the actor.

Still a familiar staple of dramas and comedies alike three decades later – including a wildly impressive roster of genre-centric film and television projects – Frewer joined ComicBook.com for a look back at his first big blockbuster.

ComicBook.com: It’s nice to have a chance to chat with you about this landmark moment in your brilliant career.

Matt Frewer: Oh, you’re very kind, thank you. It’s a pleasure. And plus, the on-hold music was kind of a new age Star Trek theme, so I was drifting away. I was hovering six inches above the floor there for a second. I’m glad you brought me back to Earth.

My pleasure. What are your most vivid memories of working on “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids?” I imagine it was, it seems like it was a pretty fun gig for you and I’m wondering what still stands out all these years later.

We had an absolute blast. There’s many, many things that stick out, but the one that comes to mind first I guess is working with the Mexican puppeteers. And I guess it was seven guys that were assigned to the giant ant, and there was one on each leg and one on each caliper. And it was just hysterical watching them. They’d shout out “Uno! Dos! Tres!” – and one leg would go up. “Uno! Dos! Tres!” – another leg would go up. It was crazy.

I mean, it was a blast because the whole thing was pre-digital, obviously, so all the oversized props were actually oversized props. I mean, nothing was done with CGI or anything, so it was fantastic. And shooting it down in Mexico, if you ever felt homesick, you’d just sort of wander along the kind of main street set, and it was incredible. And [director] Joe Johnson was amazing and became really quite a buddy after that. Rick Moranis was great, too. Very happy memories, actually.

And you got to play, not one, but two ’80s movie archetypes: the bothered neighbor and the dad who pushes his kids too hard. That’s a good one-two punch.

Yeah. Archetype! Yeah, it was pretty fun. And Joe gave me a certain license to ad lib here and there, so the scene with the weight training thing was the something I chucked in. I think it was all this stuff about putting on “20 pounds of muscle, Russel,” and all that sort of stuff. It was a lot of fun. We had a great time.

It was probably the biggest thing you’d been in at that point – you’d had “Max Headroom,” but this is where people saw you as you a little more clearly. Did you feel because this movie was such a phenomenal hit at the time, did you feel a big bump in the recognizability that suddenly came your way?

I guess, so because there were sort of three things that happened. It was the Max Headroom thing, and then obviously that character was just me in rubber makeup and then I was playing the other character, Edison Carter, in that, so there was a certain sort of recognition factor from that. But yeah, then of course, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” and then “Doctor, Doctor” right after that. So there were a few things that kind of happened one after the other, hard on the heels of each other. There was definitely a bump in “Hey, you’re that guy!”

There’s a great group of films from that era that a friend of mine refers to as “backyard adventures,” from that Spielberg/Amblin sensibility. And this was one of those.

It’s a great way of putting it actually. And it’s that kind of, oh, heartland, there’s a whole mysterious world in your backyard. And actually it was kind of a cool thing that the makers of “Honey” did, to kind of explore that whole microscopic world – and it gets you thinking, as well being very funny. So it was a kind of cool jumping-off point. I think it was a good era for those sorts of movies.

And they’re so fondly remembered. Now I talk to filmmakers all the time who are hoping to capture some of that magic. What does that mean to you to know that you didn’t just have a hit, you had something that really stuck with people and informed their own creative choices later on?

Yeah, I guess it was sort of less cynical, less postmodern irony hadn’t been invented yet. There was a kind of a joyous “let’s see what happens” kind of vibe about it. And there’s a lot of suburban archetypes in the movie, but there’s a certain kind of joy and curiosity about it, in a sense that you don’t often find now and you can point and see moviemakers wanting to hark back to that. Yeah. It was a great honor to be part of it.

Whether you’re doing comedy or drama, it seems like there’s always been a steady stream of genre in your filmography. And I was curious how much of that is you seeking out those kinds of roles, and how much are those kind of roles seeking you out?

I don’t actively seek them out. It’s whatever comes along. If I find that something’s interesting character-wise and story-wise, I’ll jump on it. But as far as the sort of stuff that I’ve done over the years, I don’t actively seek it out, it’s seems to have found me. No, I’m blessed to have been able to do lots of different things and add lots of different strings to my pole. So it’s been a huge gift.

Was it always really comedy that was your big motivator to get into this, or were you looking to do a little bit of everything?

You know, I always sort of saw myself as a character actor. Even when I was playing lead roles, I always felt like a character actor, and I had a classical training in England and always felt as though you had to be good at a lot of things in order to sort of increase, expand your work canvas. And that was a great training for me, because it definitely put on a lot of bullets in the chamber and allowed you to dance off in any direction.

And so, yeah, I’ve been blessed in that regard that I never, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t pigeonholed and in a way with the Max Headroom thing was sort of my first big splash just before “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” came along, because there was a certain anonymity involved with wearing the rubber makeup, I wasn’t immediately pigeonholed as, “Oh, he does the rubber guy.”

One of the things I’ve always liked when I see your performances, again, either in comedy or drama, is there always seems to be an element of danger to the people you’re playing, even in the wildest comedic situations. Is that an intentional thing? Do you like adding that unpredictable edge?

I don’t intentionally sew that in, but I do think if you have a certain techniques as an actor it’s a lot easier to jump off, because you always know that you have that scaffolding to come back to. So that I put down to the kind of training I had, but I think I’m more interested in characters perhaps that what’s wrong with them rather than what’s right with them.

And I don’t know whether that means I lean towards more the villain. I don’t think it’s that, but when you’re playing the hero, for instance, there’s always a certain set of expectations that have to be met for the audience. Whereas with the villain, it’s sort of all bets are off and they kind of want you to be bad, you know? And so the kind of parameters are much wider.

What are the roles that beyond Max Headroom and the ones that everybody knows that fans surprised you by constantly coming back and asking you about? Are there certain performances on certain shows that you’re surprised have sustained such an interest over time?

The White Knight, I think. I played the White Knight in this miniseries called “Alice,” which was an update of Alice in Wonderland and Kathy Bates was the Queen of Hearts and it was great, actually. We had Harry Dean Stanton in that, God rest his soul, and Tim Curry, and it was a really, really wonderful show. And people quite often ask me about that one. They often ask about “Sherlock Holmes.” Lots of people hated what I did with Sherlock Holmes because I wasn’t being Basil Rathbone. And I love what Basil Rathbone did, but I mean, when you take on an iconic character like that who’s the smartest guy in the room, you’re not going to do it the way someone else does it. You’re going to do it how you did it.

What else do they ask about? The character I played in “Eureka.” And yeah, lots of things. I mean, I don’t have the level of fame where I’m going to get my shirt ripped off in public, thank God. And usually I’m just recognized for the work, and which is great because it allows me to do what I do, which is to observe people. And if they’re constantly observing me, I don’t get a chance to do my work.

It must be exciting, too, to know that this deep into your career you’re still getting cast on shows like “Timeless” and “12 Monkeys” and “Altered Carbon” and “Orphan Black” and “The Order,” buzz-y shows are still have very passionate fan followings.

Yeah- oh, God! And I just got back from Texas. I just finished the a long stint on “Fear the Walking Dead” and that’s one too. So I’m so fortunate in that regard. It’s great fun and I would do it for free. But don’t tell them that.

Just looking at your film and television resume, obviously you’re an actor who wants to act, you want to work and get jobs and get challenges. But you have a really cool resume – everything on there is so cool. What, for you, were the coolest gigs that you got where you were the fan going to work?

Gosh, let me see. “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” was pretty great. “Star Trek [The Next Generation] was fun – and the weird thing about that one, though, is that I really wasn’t a Trekkie before I did the show, and then I became a fan of the shows. I was working on it because the people were so great. And so that one, and “Watchmen” – I worked with Zack Snyder previously on “Dawn of the Dead” and to watch him work was pretty amazing.

And Steven Soderbergh on “The Nick.” It was fascinating watching him work. I’ve never seen such a library of information that was so accessible in one guy’s mind. It was extraordinary watching it. Yeah, I’ve been blessed over the years. So thank you for reminding me, long may it continue. That’s the sound of me touching wood and rapping on my skull.

I think the audience thinks that too – long may it continue. Lastly, let’s get back to “Honey” for one more: what’s the quote that every fan wants you to say back to them?

I haven’t had a lot of requests for that. Let’s see, something with “Szalinski” at the end of it! Gosh that was 30 years ago, so let me see. I suppose it was probably “Rush the quarterback and put on 20 pounds of muscle, Russell.” It sounds like it could lifted directly out of a porn movie, actually.