Chris Farley And David Spade Got Into A Huge Fight About Rob Lowe During ‘Tommy Boy’
Tommy Boyis a modern comedy classic, and it’s largely thanks to the real-life camaraderie betweenSaturday Night LivestarsChris FarleyandDavid Spade. The two were best friends in real life, so pairing them up as frenemies makes for perfect comedic chemistry. But best friends can still fight, and that’s exactly what happened on the set ofTommy Boy, and it’s all because of co-starRob Lowe.
David Spade recently appeared on Rob Lowe’s podcastLiterally!, inspired by hisParks and Recreationcharacter’s catchphrase, and they spent some time talking about working onTommy Boy. As Spade recalls, he and Farley were pretty much spending every waking minute together because they were shooting the movie at the same time thatSaturday Night Livewas happening. Even thoughLorne Michaelswas the producer of both, the two comedians couldn’t get time off to make it easier.
During this time, Spade and Farley were hopping on flights back and forth from Toronto to New York on a private jet every day so they could continue working on both the movie and the show. Spade said:
“We were all burned out. We were both fing dying. It’s like an old married couple; we’re fing fighting all the time. We were never apart.”
One particular night, after making the flight to Toronto, Spade and Farley got in around 1:00 A.M for a shoot that was scheduled to begin at 6:00 A.M. Farley said he was feeling sick and called it an early night, but Spade decided to stay up for a bit, and he called Rob Lowe to have a drink at the hotel bar. Seems pretty harmless, right? Apparently not.
The next morning, Spade went to collect Farley to go to set, but he had already left the hotel. And as soon as Spade arrived on set, Farley was staring at him incessantly and biting his lip. Spade says that was a key indicator that “they we’re about to have a fight.”
Farley started pestering Spade by asking, “How was your night? How was Rob Lowe?” He was apparently hurt that he wasn’t invited to hang out, even though he said he was sick. Farley again asked, “How’s your precious f***ing Rob Lowe?” Spade recalls the exchange the two had (viaUproxx):
“I don’t know,” Spade said to him.
“How was drinks last night,” Farley countered.
“Oh, is that what we’re getting at?” Spade asked. “It was fine. It was all right.”
“So, you call f***ing Rob Lowe, so you’re able to have a little date with him, but you don’t call me?” Farley asked.
“The last word off the wire was that you were sick,” Spade said.
“So you calledRob Lowe?”
This bickering went on for a little while, and by the time the duo was meant to start shooting, Farley was still pretty pissed off. Despite Farley’s continued questioning about Rob Lowe, Spade wouldn’t give into the fight that Farley clearly wanted to have. So he came over and stepped on Spade’s hand while he’s sitting on the ground holding a tuna sandwich. Spade recalls the famously chubby comic stepping onto his hand and sandwich “with his big f***ing boots, with all his thousands of pounds.”
After that, Spade threw a Diet Coke on the guy, and then Farley retaliated by pushing him down a small set of stairs nearby. When Spade stood up, he said, “Are we in a fight?” And just as the spat would have continued, they heard “Action!” on the radios, and the two briefly stared at each other before walking into the scene. But it didn’t end there, because Farley was so mad that he couldn’t even say his lines in that scene, and they both just walked off the set and back to their trailers
Spade was finally pissed off, and at the time, he anticipated the movie being shut down for a short time because he said, “I’m not talking to this a**hole forever.” Meanwhile, Farley took his anger out on a crew member who was roughly the same size as himself by tackling him to the ground. I really wish we could hear that guy’s side of the story so we could hear what it’s like to be randomly tackled by Chris Farley.
But despite that fight between them, which was surely one of many throughout their friendship, Spade said, “All my memories ofTommy Boywere fun.” He also gave a touching tribute to his buddy by saying, “We had greats seats for Farley, so I love it. I’m just glad to be a part of something.”
