Co-owning a New York comic shop in the 1970’s only enhanced George Lucas’ love of the comic book medium, and the recently opened Lucas Museum of Narrative Art brought that love very much into the public eye, but the 1980’s also gave the Maker the opportunity to show his love by not only taking the Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik created duck to the big screen, but also delivering Howard the Duck, one of the first post-Star Wars Lucasfilm projects, and a Marvel film to boot. Talking with Taboo on Comics & Kicks, star Lea Thompson remembers her times with Howard.
40 years later, Howard the Duck remains one of the STRANGEST movies in Hollywood history. But what was it really like making George Lucas’ bizarre Marvel cult classic?
Lea Thompson joins Taboo on Comics & Kicks to revisit her unforgettable role as Beverly Switzler in the 1986 film Howard the Duck. From auditioning in Madonna-inspired thrift-store clothes to acting opposite a malfunctioning animatronic duck, Lea reveals the hilarious, exhausting, and sometimes downright ridiculous reality behind the movie.
She opens up about the infamous bedroom scene between Beverly and Howard, the pressure of becoming Cherry Bomb’s lead singer alongside music producer Thomas Dolby, and the Dark Overlord sequence that took an entire MONTH to film.
Plus, Lea shares memories of working with Tim Robbins, explains why Howard the Duck wasn’t quite the box-office disaster people remember, and reflects on how VHS and an entire generation of devoted fans transformed the movie into a beloved cult classic.
Join Taboo and Lea Thompson for a nostalgic trip back to one of the wildest movies of the 1980s!
CHAPTERS
00:00 Lea Thompson Returns to Comics & Kicks
00:48 Why George Lucas’ Howard the Duck?
01:35 Dressing Like Beverly to Win the Audition
02:22 The Marvel Movie That Became a Cult Classic
04:23 Who Was Really Inside the Duck Suit?
05:56 Acting With a Broken Animatronic Duck
07:58 The Infamous Howard & Beverly Bedroom Scene
09:30 Becoming Cherry Bomb With Thomas Dolby
12:19 The Dark Overlord Scene That Took a MONTH
14:59 Tim Robbins Before The Shawshank Redemption
16:45 How VHS Made Howard the Duck a Cult Classic
19:07 Long Live the Duck!