Fred Savage Reveals Why He Didn’t Participate in ‘The Princess Bride’ Reunion
The entire cast of The Princess Bride reunited for a reunion on Sept. 13. Well, mostly the entire cast. Fred Savage was notably absent, even though the movie‘s stars Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Wallace Shawn, Chris Sarandon, Christopher Guest, Billy Crystal, Carol Kane and director Rob Reiner performed.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for The Princess Bride.]
The event was a fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and had over 100,000 fans watching and donating. However, the absence of Savage caused a lot of confusion the night of the reunion. On Sept. 14, Savage broke his silence and explained his absence in an Instagram post.
Fred Savage in ‘The Princess Bride’
The Princess Bride came out in 1987, one year before Savage began his classic TV series The Wonder Years. Savage played a boy who was staying home from school on a sick day. His grandfather (Peter Falk) comes to read a story to him. That story is The Princess Bride.
Part of the fun of The Princess Bride is how the boy keeps interrupting the story. First, he questions, “Is this a kissing book?” Then he makes the grandfather skip ahead because the suspense is too much to take. By the end, he comes around to the romance of the tale too.
‘The Princess Bride’ 2020
For the reunion reading of the screenplay, Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard played the grandson. Wolfhard is closer to the age of the boy in the story than Savage is 33 years after the film. However, fans noticed his absences when every other surviving cast member was involved.
It got stranger when Reiner specifically said everybody who’s still alive is here. Andre the Giant, Peter Falk and Peter Cook are no longer with us, so Josh Gad, Reiner himself and Eric Idle played their roles respectively.
Without any information from the producers of the event or Savage himself, fans began speculating on the actor’s absence. Some speculated that he stayed out of it for political reasons, since the Princess Bride event was a fundraiser for Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The real reason Fred Savage wasn’t included
Savage took to his own Instagram to stop the rumors. He shared a birthday post for his brother, Boy Meets World star Ben Savage, who turned 40 on Sept. 13.
“Wanna feel old?? My baby brother is 40!! Had so much fun celebrating with him last night!”
Savage addressed his absence from the Princess Bride reunion, implying that the Savage family had a private celebration for Ben the same night.
“…and while I’m always proud to be part of the Princess Bride family, sometimes real life family comes first😜😜”
If it had anything to do with politics, Savage did not say. It certainly didn’t come from any animosity towards The Princess Bride and its cast though. Savage has been a good sport about the film’s legacy, even reprising his role as the kid in the bed for Once Upon a Deadpool.
