Talladega Nights child star Grayson Russell reveals the one thing he was 'uncomfortable' doing in the movie
Two decades on from the release of Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Grayson Russell's portrayal of Texas Ranger remains one of his most well known roles.
Russell played one of Will Ferrell's on-screen sons and had some iconic moments in the movie.
Listing off some of the things people still quote back to him to this day, Russell told UNILAD in an interview to mark the film's 20th anniversary: "'If you ain't first, your last', 'I threw Grandpa Chip's war medals off the bridge' – I get lines that I didn't even say.
"But, for the most part, they say 'I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey' and 'Chip, I'm all jacked up on Mountain Dew'."
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Practically all of these his lines were unscripted, according to Russell, apart from the moment his character says, 'Can we solve this conflict without anger?'"
Russell grew up in Clanton, Alabama, and around the time he was cast in Talladega Nights (which acclaimed director Christopher Nolan says is one of his favorite films), he had set up a BeeGees cover band with most of his second-grade class.
He grew up surrounded by music. The 28-year-old told us: "I had started touring when I was five singing gospel with my parents. So music has always been a big part of my life."
But when it comes to acting, what ended up being a career for him was actually an 'accident'.
"Talladega Nights was an accident," Russell explained. "It was an open call audition in the newspaper at the local high school. My dad had gone fishing and me and my mom were bored. That was it. That was the only reason we went."
After the movie he landed a role in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films as Fregley, as well as 2016's Mother's Day which he starred in alongside the likes of Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, and Jason Sudeikis.
More recently Russell has starred in the TV series Blue Ridge.
See some of his best moments in Talladega Nights here:
Going back to his days filming Talladega Nights, Russell revealed that there were parts of the PG-13 movie he felt 'uncomfortable' doing – so director Adam McKay made sure he didn't do them.
"I was entirely uncomfortable cussing," Russell shared with UNILAD. "I was raised in the Church so I didn't want to do it and I went to Adam, who was the director, and said 'Hey, do I really have to say all this?'
"He sat up, looked me in the face and said, 'You never have to say something you're not comfortable with.'"
Russell went on to say that he had no idea at the time that his request could have meant that he was dropped from the movie because swearing was 'a big part' of the job, but McKay worked around it.
The actor recalled: "They gave all the bad language to Houston [Tumlin], who played my brother, and anytime they would remotely share something vulgar for me to say, a whole line would form to meet me and my mother to come to apologize for putting me in a position for compromising what I believed in."
Elsewhere in his conversation with UNILAD, Russell shared a sweet memory he has with late actor Michael Clarke Duncan on the film set.
"Michael was so huge. He was physically massive," Russell said of The Green Mile actor. "He would come up to me and say, 'Anybody been messing with you day, boy?'
"He'd then pick me up one-handed and sit me on his shoulders and parade me around."
Duncan passed away aged 54 in 2012, just six years after Talladega Nights hit theaters.
Topics: Film and TV, Nostalgia, News
Niamh Shackleton
