Andre the Giant Page #7

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Announcer:

The greatest spectacle

in wrestling.

Muhammad Ali!

Wrestling history

is taking place right now!

Right now!

I don't believe it!

I don't believe it!

( commentary continues,

indistinct )

That period from '84 through

the first "WrestleMania"

was the real breakthrough.

Okerlund:

Became more of

an entertainment vehicle

as opposed

to the old wrestling.

Andy Warhol, your impressions

of what took place earlier

on here.

Oh, I'm speechless.

That two-year period was huge

in changing the whole face

of the business.

In the '70s, pro wrestling

was still sort

of a niche attraction.

But in the early '80s,

you saw this explosion.

Hulk Hogan was on the cover

of "Sports Illustrated"

and there were wrestlers

appearing

on "Saturday Night Live"

and Andr the Giant

gets cast in

"The Princess Bride,"

a major motion picture.

Cary Elwes:

"The Princess Bride"

is a comedy.

It's a fantasy film.

It's a romantic adventure film.

It has everything.

It has giant rats,

giant eels.

It's one the classic fairytale

movies of all time,

and one of

the leading characters in it

is a giant called Fezzik.

Everybody move!

Elwes:

Bill Goldman, who wrote

the screenplay and the book,

described himself as

a lunatic fan of Andr's

and really wrote

the part for him.

So when Rob Reiner came onboard

as the director,

Goldman said to him,

"There's only one guy

who can do this."

He auditioned for the part,

and I didn't understand

a single word he said.

I didn't understand anything.

Fezzik:

How long do we have to wait

before if we know

if the miracle works?

I think he like

to scream at us.

But he was perfect for the part!

He's a giant!

There is nothing nearby,

not for miles.

Then there will be no one

to hear you scream.

( exclaims )

Robin Wright:

The size of his hands

were startling.

And I remember being freezing

cold, we were out in the woods.

He came over to me

and just put his hand

on my head, and his hand came

down to here all the way around.

Keep my head warm.

Rob Reiner:

The clich of gentle giant...

- Hello, lady!

- is Andr,

that's what he was!

He did not do bad guy well.

- No.

- That was not his thing.

Beat it or I'll call

the brute squad!

- I'm on the brute squad.

- You are the brute squad.

Billy Crystal:

He had this poetry about him

and the sensitivity that was

so appealing.

He talked about the village

he was from

and his parents,

and he just wanted

to go back there,

and he talked about this farm

in North Carolina.

He said he loves it because

"nobody looks twice at me."

There were two sides to him.

There was the performer,

there was Andr the Giant,

and then there was

Andr Roussimoff.

The public Andr

had to be always on,

and then the private Andr

just wanted to hang out

and be one of the guys.

That's really who

he wanted to be.

He just didn't want

to be treated differently.

Reiner:

One day he came to work

and I said,

"What did

you do last night, Andr?"

He says, "I went to the bar,

I had a couple of drinks."

I said, "Well, tell me, what

do you drink? On an average?

What do you drink?"

He said, "Well,

I had six bottles of wine,

three bottles of cognac."

I said,

"You must have been drunk!"

He said, "No, no,

I didn't get drunk.

A little tipsy,

but not drunk."

So now, at 9:
00 in the morning,

the Nouveau Beaujolais

comes out.

And Andr--

I'm not exaggerating--

he starts drinking

and by the end of the day,

I'm not exaggerating,

he had drank 20 bottles

of Nouveau Beaujolais.

Andr couldn't fit on a horse,

he was too heavy,

we had guide wires from

the ceilings being lowered

a 500-pound drunken giant.

And he goes,

"Hello, boss, hello!"

Like this. And I thought,

this is an interesting job

I have here.

Westley:

Are there rocks ahead?

Fezzik:
If there are,

we'll all be dead!

Vizzini:

No more rhymes,

now, I mean it!

Fezzik:

Anybody want a peanut?

Andr:

It's difficult everywhere I go.

They don't build anything

for big people.

They build everything for blind

people, for crippled people,

for some other people,

but not for big people.

So we have to fit in there,

and it's not too easy

all the time.

Elwes:

People think, oh--"

That's the first question

they ask me,

"Hey, do you go

drinking with Andr?

Wasn't it fun

to drink with Andr?"

'Cause they think of him

as this legendary drinker

and they think it's funny,

but in fact

he drank

because he was in pain.

And I asked him one day

and he explained to me

that his spine

and his neck and his knees

gave him a lot of trouble.

Crystal:

He wasn't that well during

the course of the movie

'cause his back

was so bad.

And I always thought

that the hard part

would be his performance,

but the wrestling was

the hardest thing for him.

Crystal:
That early fight

he couldn't do

against the rock.

- And he couldn't catch Robin.

- He couldn't catch Robin.

There's a scene where

I'm supposed to fall

from the castle

and he catches me.

And they had to put me

on cables so that he had

no weight in his arms.

He had this wonderful sense

of humor about himself,

but he had a sadness too.

The reality of who he was was

was getting

more intense on him.

He knew he wasn't

gonna live long.

McMahon:

Andr knew that he wasn't

long for the world.

And he was hurting, he was

really, really hurting,

and I went over

to visit with him.

And Andr told me,

"I'm done, boss."

When he said done,

he meant not just wrestling,

but "After this, I'm done,"

basically, "I'm gonna go die."

And he told me about

his neck and his back

and things

of that nature

and what it would take

to have it fixed,

but he was not interested

at all.

And then when

I spoke to him about,

"Well, here's why I came over,

you know,

because there's a building

in Pontiac, Michigan,

it holds 93,000 people...

( camera lenses clicking )

...and I think that we could

set up the promotion correctly

and I think

it would sell it out."

What would everyone

really want to see?

And as mean Andr comes in,

"Who's gonna stop Andr?"

If he had a temper

or if he's a bad guy,

who's gonna stop him?

Well, there's only one person

who might be able to...

Meltzer:

Andr was in bad shape.

Andr needed the back surgery.

Vince had to tell Andr,

"Get the operation,

prolong your career,

come back to wrestle."

Andr wanted to have a reason

to live, not a reason to die.

And he knew that, "Wow,

I would have a whole

lease on life

if I can get through

this operation."

The allure of Hogan

pulled Andr through.

Shoemaker:

Hogan in a lot of ways

was the sort of

territorial hero,

but now the territory

is the entire country.

They bring in villains

for him to face,

and at some point

you gotta

come up with something

bigger and better.

Andr the Giant,

as a villain,

was bigger and better

than everything that

had come before.

Wasn't sure how

it was gonna go down,

I didn't have a problem doing

the job and Andr beating me.

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