By Christi Carras, Los Angeles Times
John Larroquette’s role in 1974’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre wasn’t exactly a cushy job. But it was apparently a kush-y one.
In a Parade interview published Tuesday, the veteran actor confirmed that friend and Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper paid him in weed for his feature film debut. Larroquette was in his 20s when he narrated the classic slasher as “a favour” to the rising filmmaker.
“Totally true,” Larroquette said, addressing online rumours he was compensated in cannabis.
“He gave me some marijuana or a matchbox or whatever you called it in those days. I walked out of the (recording) studio and patted him on the back side and said, ‘Good luck to you!’”
According to Parade, Larroquette and Hooper became pals in the late 1960s while the former was tending bar and the latter was shooting a project in Colorado. To pursue acting, Larroquette later moved to Los Angeles, where he reconnected with Hooper and agreed to participate in his new horror flick.
“Tobe heard I was in town and asked for an hour of my time to narrate something for this movie he just did,” he says. “I said ‘Fine!’ It was a favour.”
The rest is history: Texas Chain Saw Massacre became a seminal horror hit, and Larroquette reprised his role as narrator for a remake (2003), a prequel (2006) and a sequel (2022). Larroquette — who admittedly isn’t “a big horror movie fan” — told Parade he hasn’t actually seen any of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films (which evolved the title weapon into one word), but he did receive real paycheques for subsequent instalments.
“You do something for free in the 1970s and get a little money in the ’90s,” he said. “It’s certainly the one credit that’s stuck strongly to my resume.”
Though Texas Chain Saw Massacre is undoubtedly a solid resume builder, Larroquette is perhaps best known for his role as assistant district attorney Dan Fielding in the popular legal comedy, Night Court, which originally aired from 1984 to 1992. He’s the only returning cast member featured in the 2023 revival of Night Court, which premiered Tuesday on NBC.
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