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The Princess Bride cast discuss why the 1987 movie remains so funny today: "Comedy is serious business"

Playing it straight might not be the most natural thing to do in a comedy, but it is what makes The Princess Bride work so well

You’d think that being on the set of a comedy film would be all fun and games, but there is a lot more work that goes into making a comedy than you think. There are countless things to juggle – the tone, the pacing, even the way lines are delivered – all have to be just right to make sure that jokes land. While the cast of The Princess Bride has said that they had a lot of fun on set, they’ve also said that it was serious business.

While answering fan questions at Awesome Con, Chris Sarandon explained how the cast and crew were able to deliver that iconic dialogue in a way that has resounded through the years. “I also think that the sensibility on the set was very consistent,” he said. “For instance, when I auditioned for Rob [Reiner] and Bill Goldman, and I read the scene where I say to Buttercup, ‘I hope you’ll accept this as a substitute for suicide,’ or whatever the line is. I can’t remember. You probably know better than me… Rob laughed, and I played it very straight, and that was the reason that he laughed.”


In 1987, the iconic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon debuted - and all our lives were changed. Watch this reunion of the original voice actors:


Why is that so important? Because, as Sarandon added, “Because comedy is serious business. You talk to any comic actor and they’ll tell you, you gotta play it straight. And that was, I think, the sort of guiding principle with all the actors… let the lines do the work.”

Considering we’re still talking about the movie nearly 40 years later, we think the lines did their job well, don’t you?


Trent Cannon

Trent Cannon: Trent is a freelance writer who has been covering anime, video games, and pop culture for a decade. (He/Him)

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