Key Points
Scott Schwartz played the lead role in The Toy and a key supporting part in A Christmas Story as a child.
After hitting puberty, his Hollywood luck ran out, and he eventually acted in multiple adult films.
Schwartz reflects on his career trajectory in a new episode of Hollywood Demons.
Scott Schwartz is reflecting on how he went from child stardom to adult entertainment.
The former child actor, who headlined the Richard Pryor comedy The Toy and portrayed Ralphie’s pole-licking buddy Flick in A Christmas Story, appeared in the latest episode of the Investigation Discovery documentary series Hollywood Demons to discuss the trajectory of his career.
Schwartz explained that he’d starred in more than 100 commercials and countless other projects as a kid. “I’d done all the shows and the ABC after-school specials and all that kind of stuff,” he said. “And then I hit puberty and then we’ve got a problem. My voice changes. I don’t get any taller, 5’2″ on a great day. Now I look 15, I sound 27. What do you do?”
Schwartz and Peter Billingsley in ‘A Christmas Story’
Credit: MGM/courtesy Everett Collection
The actor decided to take a break from Hollywood and toured the country as a roadie for a friend who worked in the adult film industry. He later returned to Los Angeles in the 1990s and found himself “living in crap” upon his return to the city.
“I ended up doing several on-camera, what they call non-sex roles in adult films,” Schwartz said. “They’re willing to pay $300 a day, I need rent money. Okay, fine, I’m not hurting anybody, I’m not going to jail.”
The actor recalled one of his early adult film roles. “[I’m] not a sex symbol, wasn’t built that way, don’t look that way,” he said. “I worked with Jenna Jameson. It was a phone call thing. And I’m playing the old Jewish movie mogul with the bifocals and the thing. I got a couple of scenes.”
Schwartz then pivoted to behind-the-scenes work. “I was working in the office of one of the companies, and [they] needed a cameraperson,” he explained. “So the next thing you know, I became a cameraperson for one of the companies and shot damn near 200 scenes of adult film. I did that. Put food on the table, roof over my head.”
In 1996, Schwartz was presented with a new on-camera opportunity. “One day, the owner of the company says to me, ‘Would you wanna do a scene in a film?’ And I went, ‘I never thought about it,'” he remembered, noting that he lived with multiple alcoholic roommates at the time and was desperate for money. “When the company offered me a good enough of a deal, I said yes.”
Schwartz in ‘A Christmas Story Christmas’
Credit: Everett
The actor noted how unusual it was to switch from mainstream entertainment to adult film. “Remember, nobody else had done this s—,” he remembered. “There was zero that had done as much work as I had who then turns around and does this. I’m Gilligan alone on the island, man. I’m out there by myself.”
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The project, titled Scotty’s X-Rated Adventure, saw Schwartz play a character whose life closely resembled his own. “I played myself in the movie, and I’m like a child star wanting to become an adult actor and get more attention,” he said. “I did it for the paycheck. I was the second-highest-paid male performer ever. It was John Wayne Bobbitt was the first and I’m second. It was the one time. Okay, I’m good. That was the end of that.”
Schwartz reiterated that he had no intention of doing more pornographic work after that one starring vehicle. “I never looked at it as my life, it’s gonna be my career, my entirety,” he said. “That’s not what I did. I just sort of moved into this other thing.”
Hollywood Demons‘ latest episode, “Child Stars Gone Wild,” is streaming on HBO Max.
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