A Blue Lagoon Reunion with Christopher Atkins

Some stories are funny, others are cut wrenching, but all are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice answers one question, now, what there's so much talk about all the nudity and the sensuality, and how did you deal with with that, like emotionally well, I mean at first it was it was weird, but then as everybody else was doing it, I got into it. I mean after that movie, it was hard for me to keep

my clothes on. I'm sure you made a lot of people happy about I can't go to the beach and want to put my suit on. It's just not right. But there was there was scenes that I was but naked with you. If you remember sliding down that slide and things like that, and that was that was a little awkward, but it was kind of funny for me because at this point in time, you know, I just did it, but it was more fun to your reaction, just like, oh God, Like, why do I have to

look at that. I've never seen one of those before. I'm not gonna start now. My guest today is actually really one of my oldest friends, Christopher Atkins. Chris and I met when we were on the set of Blue Lagoon, which is our nineteen eighties film. I was just fourteen and he was eighteen, and back then we honestly had no idea how much I'm movie was going to change our lives. The years that followed were the only thing

I could think of as pure insanity. But there is no one else that I would have rather taken that journey with. Chris was and still is a joy to work with, and in the four decades that I've known him, I've watched him grow from a first time movie star to a seasoned actor, a father, writer, an entrepreneur, and I'm just so grateful that he wanted to even share a moment of his incredible story with us. Taking this

trip down memory lane with him was was really sweet. So, without further ado, here is my leading man, Christopher Atkins. Do you remember meeting me for the first time? Yeah? Kind of absolutely, yeah, kind of years ago. All right, Well I've at least makes me feel like I made an impression for you, of course. Well, I mean, listen, we spent a long time together. I get more questions asked about Blue Lagoon than any other movie, any other anything.

I mean, maybe I get Calvin Klein, but like people from all over the world will say Laguna blue, you know, I mean, like, did ever make you crazy that people did that? You know? It was kind of a blessing and a curse, if you if you know what I mean as far as the industry goes, because everybody, I can't tell you how many pictures I had to do with curly hair and wearing that diaper after that movie. But um, that's just just just the way it was. But no, I listen, you look back on it, and

people who come into Hollywood want to be actors. Their dream is to get that golden ticket. You know that that hit And how lucky were we that we had something that was so incredibly mess To this day, I still I had a guy show up at my my back door here just last week. It's still it is creepy, but it's still going on. So I mean, in one sense, it's like, you know, we were very very fortunate to be able to say that we were in an hour. Supposedly it's a classic film. It's considered a classic film.

So and I mean, the the nostalgia is so is so kind of important and kind of it matters to

people differently now. You know, when you talk to people and they say, oh, that was the first sort of coming of age movie I ever saw, or my mom didn't let me see it, but then I snuck in, or and you know, I always get like people saying like I was, I was so in love not with you, with him, but that's okay, And then people coming up or like they either in love with me or they in love with you, and it was kind of crazy, but it mattered to people in their lives. It totally mattered.

I did a I did a TV show in Holland, and the producers came up to me when was a man, when was a woman? And a a woman came up to me and said, I knew I was straight when I saw that movie, and the guy came up to me and said, I knew I was gay when I saw that movie. Equal opportunity were doing it. This is just how the world works, you know. So yeah, do you remember when we First of all, have you seen the movie? Have you seen Blue Lagoon lately? Uh? Yeah, not too

long ago. People people like to watch it with me. Which have you found that where people want you there to watch the movie? No? Yea, look at you? Okay, No, I can't even get hearing my voice, my little well, I like telling the stories about like Richard Evanson where they left him on the burning boat and all those

funny little stories. Because what stand out to you about that? Well, first of all, it was interesting because Peter Bogart's down in North Carolina and I had, yeah, first a d and he said, you know, no movie was ever shot like that before, and no movie will ever be shot like that ever again in Hollywood. So it was really, it was really, it was really quite a full on experience, life experience. I always say those things and what we experienced on that movie. He's right, never again will a

movie be made like that ever. I mean, they wouldn't, they wouldn't be allowed no, oh gosh, no, I mean animals were hurt in the movie. They were spearing fish and all kinds of crazy things. Children are naked running down the beach. I mean, it just could do that now, but I'm taking an infant and submerging the baby underwater exactly. Gush. And there were long hours and there was a lot

of physical stuff in that movie. I mean climbing those coconut trees with that little lap lap on, man, I was chafe up to no end of running over the coral and stuff. Remember all the bug bites and the coral cuts and all the other crazy things, the fevers and everything that we had. It was just people don't know any of that stuff. It's not easy. No, the bugs were crazy, the wild crabs were crazy, the wild horses were nuts. And then the infestation of rats that

was another one. And then the what people don't know is that Blue Lagoon was on an island, and uh, that was on a coral reef. And so if you had any type of a cut of any kind, which is all we had because we were barefoot and you know, wearing like little strips of clothing where my hair was taped down to my my body to cover the boobs, which were very minimal anyway, I don't know what I

was trying to cover. Remember the buppy pads, puppy pads, and they would stick these little sticky like flesh colored things on my nipple because nipple was evidently where they drew the line in this movie, which is ironic anyway. But but if any kind of cut you had and you went into the water, bits of the coral would get into the cut and it would become completely infected

and ulcerated. Do you remember remember the uh Ray who had that big hole in the back of his calf for like three months, and we had a doctor there. There was a and he had his little parrot. The doctor good doctor smoke smoke pot every day. And we were in the wild West, but on the water. Remember I got pneumonia and in the birthing scene when I'm supposed to be having the baby, I uncontrollably can't breathe and I'm coughing. I'd like a coughing fit. Everyone's like,

what a great acting joy and not breathe. I just remember in that scene where Peter was bouncing the rubber baby up and down on the umbilical cord and snapped it. Oh my god, snapped snapped the rubber bilical cord off the babies. You snapped the first ever steadicam. I know. I told that story just the other night. As a matter of fact, I can't believe that it's so funny. Well, you did everything. You really speared the fish, you really

climbed the trees. And we got there and they instantly wanted us to be tanned, right, And remember they set up those little thatched areas so that we could get tan without tan lines, I know. And you're right next to me in it. And that was even stranger because you were only fourteen at the time, and I'm I'm next to any other one, right, We weren't like looking at each other. No, but it No, there was obviously a wall. But it was just very strange, wasn't it?

How they how they had that set up. But I was eighteen and and at that point in time, I came from Rye, New York. Very conservative, the whole deal. I'll never forget. Randall asked me on the plane. Randall's the director, just so everybody knows, but he asked me on the plane, what do I think about being naked because and I, you know, I had no idea. I'd never naked in front of people before, you know, so I had no idea. I said, well, we'll just find out,

I guess, and that was yes, and he had. I think he was probably scared to death because it was so important to him and the movie at that point in time, because it was obviously two innocent kids who that shouldn't be an issue. I mean, but it was never really, we were never eased into it, you know what I mean, Like, well, no, go get a tan.

You have to have a full body tan. So that was the first time, even though I was in that little cubicle of Fijian hut basically open to the sky, that they could get some sun in and uh, and he wanted that full on tan. What I remember, too, is that they wanted us so desperately to fall in love with each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well you were also just fourteen. I was eighteen at the time, So that's a world of difference. It is a world of different You were just growing up. I mean, my gosh.

Although I was dating Cindy at the time, and Cindy was fifteen when I was dating her, It also struck me though, too, because I remember thinking, Hey, let's just get to know each other first, rather than trying to make us fall in love with each other and force the situation. And I did not react well to being forced into feeling anything. I wanted to sort of be left,

left a little bit left to my own. But I also was you know, I don't think I hadn't even kissed anybody really by that age, you know, which was pro probably great for the film because that's what it was all about, and that you have to admit. The chemistry between us was just amazing. There was a lot of great, great moments that went on there and and I and I think it was a lot of that innocence that really came off in the film that made it work even more. M You didn't know that you

wanted to be an actor, did you. I mean we were not when we met. You were like, I want to go into sports medicine. You wanted to be a baseball player. Then what how did that happen? Well, you taught me everything on the island. I had no idea what even a camera looked like. I didn't know what was going on. And yeah, I wanted to go into sports medicine. I had all those knee operations, so I

got taken out of baseball. But I did find out years later through my son that hitting coach who's not a hitting coach to the Dodgers, I found out through him that the Phillies were going to draft me, which was I said to my son, Look, I told you, I knew what I was talking about, and that was kind of a good moment. But life had different, different

changes opportunities. Well, we we call I call the show now What, because I think throughout our lives we have multiple now what moments where we really are faced with something and you said something, just to go back a little bit, you wanted to be a baseball player, all of a sudden you have to have these surgeries, and does that end your baseball career? Yes, it did. I mean after all those surgeries, I got a lot of They really the sports medical doctors and Massachusetts really put

me together. Well. But I was going to go into sports medicine and going to go to Dennis In University in Ohio and looking forward to all of that to suddenly being on an island for four and a half months shooting that movie and completely changing my entire life. Were there any other now what moments that were prior to that? So I always think of things like free

blue lagoon, post blue lagoon, it's like and peace blue lagoon. Um, well, mom remarried, so that was and now what with a stepfather, And that turned out to be the greatest gift of our lives was my stepfather. I don't know if you remember. We went out on his boat and did all that shoot on that That was fun back then, but he turned out to be just a really special man in our lives. So we were really really lucky and blessed to have him or other I mean, he really instilled

family and all. As a matter of fact, my my real father actually said to me one day, he said, I don't know if I could have done as good a job, and that was that was big for him to say. Yeah, So, I mean that was a now what moment. Getting married was a now what moment because the dress was getting tighter as she was walking down the aisle. So there that was a huge now what moment at twenty four years old and whacked down in my head at that point in time in my life.

So yeah, oh yeah, did you auditioned for the movie, right, Yeah, I'm never auditioned for a movie in my life. And I just got this call to go in and an audition, and I did, and then they called me back, and they called me back, and they called me back, and this was over the wintertime, and then I didn't hear from from like for like two months. I was just excited to say that, oh, when that movie comes out. I auditioned for that movie. I remember reading those lines,

you know, that kind of thing. I thought that was gonna be kind of fun. Never in a million years I ever thought I was going to get the picture. And then of course it's not just getting a movie, it's you got to run around naked. Did you ever feel Yeah, very much so, as a matter of fact, I said no. Well, when I went in two months later, he called me up and he said, look, we haven't found the person yet. We want to see you again. And I said, aren't you supposed to be filming this movie.

By this time, though, I had had a tan from being down at the yacht club, so having this tan really made a difference for him. And I also was a scuba diver because uh, and he liked that a lot also because I were obviously underwater a lot. So um. Yeah. Two months later he called me up and Julie Warner remember Julie. Julie was the one audition when he wanted me to bring a blonde curly wig in. I said yeah, and I said, I said, excuse me, He said, yeah,

can you bring a blonde curly wig? I said, I was just gonna say I got a lot of them, not a problem. So Mom actually had something and I brought this thing in. They curled it up and had me audition again. And then the next thing I know is it was like two or three days later they called me up and said I had the part, and I said no. Back then it was a four million dollar picture or something. I don't want two million dollars

in my head. I don't know what I'm doing. And then and I said, and I'm late for a softball game at Ford. I had to take the train. But then then they convince you, or yeah, they convinced me. And I had a long talk with Mom about it because which big well. She she said to me said, Chris, look, you know, if you don't ever have to do it again, if you don't want to and I was supposed to be back in time to go to college. So I, uh, that wasn't going to be a problem. But unfortunately we

weren't um or fortunately one or the other. But uh, yeah, So when I talked to mom about it, and I talked to the casting directors about it, and they said, look, they wouldn't have cast you if they didn't think you could do it. So I said, all right, well, I love how important our moms were in in this period of time. UM, and your mom had no reservations about the storyline, right, you know, she didn't. And it was funny because at the premiere she said, well I hadn't

seen that in a long time. She read the script. You know, I don't even know if she did, or, to be honest with you, I have no idea. Oh my god, that's a good question. I should ask her what did you get me into? But you know, my mom built she as you know, like my mom was for years, I mean, built such a strong cocoon around me and such a such a layer of um protection. And yet she was also she you know, asked you to come and live in ourbury. Yes, what do you

remember about that? Because she's quoted as saying something like, um, you know, I wanted them to get to know each other, so the best way would be for us to live

in the same you know house, a little hut. And it shocked me that she ended up suggesting that she wanted me to come because she basically wanted you out of horses and into boys type of thing, and you were really into your horses back then, and and for the movie's sake, she wanted us to be closer together and and be near each other and be able to have that whether it's the brother and sister or whether it's the love story or whatever that was going on.

I'm sure she would have liked or was pushing for more of the boyfriend girlfriend relationship. Okay, but at the same time, you were fourteen. I mean, that's that's even I mean, I'm stuck between a rock and hard place here about that you're gonna We never talked about this. That's a crazy position to put you in. The only thing I knew was that, uh, you were the closest person to my age at the time. I mean, like I said, I was, I was eighteen and I basically

just turned eighteen when we went out there. So um. And like I had also said, I had missed so much school because of the knee surgeries. I went to three different high schools. I missed a whole bunch of myself of having a girlfriend through the high school period. It wasn't until the very very end when I was modeling it forward where that Cindy and that that lasted for a while. But so it was a whole new coming of age experience for me also on the island.

So yeah, of course I was very attracted to you because you were so smart, you were so kind and nice, and then at the same time you would also tell me you would you would say it like it is, which is great, you know, I mean, okay, explain that a little bit, because well, I I don't know, you know, sometimes I wonder if it was your mom's influence or something that was going on every once in a while. But yeah, were a little We had a little cat

fights now and it were stupid ship. But you know, I enjoyed the times that we did collect shells on the beach and you would tell me your your Tatum O'Neil store and and black velvet or whatever. I remember you were telling me something about wanting a part so bad,

and all of these things. I had no idea what I was doing, what I was going through in this movie and all of this kind of stuff, And and you made it, honestly made it so easy for me and so nice in the way that we we did get to work together in a in a very short amount of time. You've had massive, massive experiences back to back, right, so that happens you're all of a sudden your world shifts practically overnight. Yeah, how do you handle that? You know?

I I don't think anybody can handle it. Well. I mean it literally, like you said, it was just overwhelming. Uh, I mean I just was sent all over the world. I was doing uh, parties and interviews and all kinds of stuff everywhere, And there wasn't a place I could go that people didn't stop. You and I were on every single solitary talk show that there possibly was. Um,

I mean it was absolutely insane. So as much as I think that I wanted to be me and keep myself, the surroundings of it all were just impossible to not be overwhelming to anybody that was around us. I mean anywhere I went to shopping or or just to hang out with my friends. I was constantly stopped and you guys used to yell at me all the time because I'd signed everybody's freaking autograph and were like, Chris, just right, love and let's go meet you on the sidebo I

hope you made a good purchase. Good luck with your family, Chris. Can we get out of here please? Um. But now then there were some there were some setbacks and some difficult things that really also threw you for a loop. Are you talking about sobriety that there you had a manager? I believe that too, did not treat you well. And yeah, yeah,

I had, Yeah, I had a lot. Yeah, the whole Hollywood thing actually hit me right between the eyes and I ended up having a business manager steal every single time, me and Tom Hanks and Donna Mills and all kinds of people. And so they left me with one kid one on the way and like two dollars and the bank had to call us in. I'll never forget. And I think that was part of the downfall to my marriage at that time too, because it was just so devastating that everything was gone. So yeah, so that was

really tough. Went through bankruptcy, did all of that. I mean, it was awful. It was really really awful. How did you what did you do? Like? What did you what did you turn to? How did you get through it? It just uh, well, And then, like I said, then I was twenty four years old, I had a son, I had one on the way, and I was partying up a storm, um trying to cope and deal with

it at that point in time. And then, uh, and I'll get into this because I know it's always something that comes up and it's kind of important and that and especially I know in your life. And what I wasn't rye for Christmas and went out and drank up a storm, came back and had another fight and the whole thing. And the next morning my parents called me down and said, we want you to leave. You're disrupting the household. And it's we don't want you, we w

don't we don't want you here right now. And that just was the straw that broke the camel's back. Everything that could possibly have gone wrong in my life went wrong except for the having my my son, and uh, and I just broke down. And so I went to a rehab and I was in a rehab for twenty eight days in Harrison, New York, and I think I was the only person to this day, I'm still sober.

So it's almost thirty thirty six years. Yeah, And I just think this is important because you never know, you know, I did it because I wanted to be a dad more than I wanted to be a drunk. I mean, it just came down to that. As you know, I always wanted to be a dad, and it just for some reason I was lucky enough to grasp onto the program. I mean, to this day, I still go to meetings three times a week and do all that. Um. But the point was was really interesting, as I'll never forget.

When I was thirty years sober, we had a big Christmas party here in Fairfield at my sister's house, and the whole family, my kids and everybody were there. And my son calls me into the dining room and the whole family is in there, and I just thought we were going to have dessert. And he gets up in front of the whole family and makes a speech about how proud he was of me for having thirty years of sobriety and what it meant to him and his

sister all of those years to have a dad. Oh my god, Now that was one of your moments that you never I never realized that that they recognized that I just was a dad. But I wasn't up and down emotionally. I was. I was just a dad through that whole thing, which I when I look back on, I was very grateful for and you and hadn't like nobody had done an intervention before, like your parents just that wasn't even an intervention. Did they just say they just don't want you in the house or was it

because it wasn't a formal intervention. No, they just my mom basically did what what you're supposed to do is release you would love I mean she but we're such a tight family as you if you remember that, you know, I've got great parents and great brothers and sister and the whole thing. So that's what really hurt more than anything, was that I was just this bad person. And it really wasn't a bad person. You were just you were

an addict and it got the better of you. I mean, thank god, did you have Did you lean on those people and all those people in your life? Is it just your family who you were able to really lean on during that time, well, my family was phenomenal. Because I was still going through a whole lot of the other crap with the business manager and everything else. I had a lot of weight on my shoulders and I

just had to learn to just have faith. I mean, it really comes down to faith, you know, believing that that there's just more. And what that more is is if I if I hunt for it, it will never come. But if I let it happen, it comes abundantly. And that's just one of the things that I had to learn and to stay in the moment. And and yeah, I like I said, I'm very big on the program. I still go three times a week, so I through

everything at that. I listen, I've been a c O A and alan on and all of that for on and off for decades. Um. My mother never was able to succeed in the program. I tried. I tried to get her to go with me. I tried to get her to go with me over it didn't. She's you know, and I'll never forget this, and and I hope it doesn't hurt you at all, but I'll never forget. When

I said to her, I said, look, I'm sober. I'm going, you know, you know, let's go together, we can do this and all this, and she just flat out said no, because she will get recognized and somebody will write about it and all of this sort of stuff. And I'll never forget when I went into the rehab and this

is this nurse man, Pat, old bad Pat Man. She came in there and I had a giant's hat on and some magazines when I went into rehab and old Pat comes in there, boy, and she took that hat off and she goes, you ain't in here for that, and I went, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's my hat. And she took the magazine's you ain't in here for this either, and I went, what are you kidding? And this woman pulled those humility pegs out of me, you know, and and and I too was worried about and this is

before him. I'm I was worried about, Well, the press is gonna get it or they're gonna it's gonna get out. And I was definitely worried about how people would perceive me as this drunk or this this terrible gutter kind of person. At all they ruined is like all that negativity in my head, and I'll never forget. One of my biggest moments was they took us to outside meetings

from the rehab. We went to this church and I'm like, no, not ry, I'm gonna see somebody I know and all those negative thoughts are gonna think all these terrible things of me and all this. Sure enough, I go in there and here's this guy that was my baseball coach and everything. And he sees me and he goes, hey, Chris, how are you doing. I go, oh, God, enough, hey Bill, I'm just going. I suddenly stopped and I looked and I go, what are you doing here? He goes, I'm

a drunk and old bill boy. He was sixty years so, and he passed away just about a month ago. And here in Stratford he was. We would go to meetings every Tuesday night and have dinner and hang out. And actually we're working on a project that I got to keep going, which is the Bill Wilson Story, but a feature film of the Bill Wilson Story. I wasn't going

to say the name. I wasn't gonna say. You know, you're not supposed to say congratulations on that, and bore and even more importantly when your babies say anything like that, Yes it is. It is why you exist. It is

every possible thing, and it's from start to finish. And one of the things that I've been loved so much about you is that it doesn't matter if we're like signing autographs at a convention or doing a reality show, or doing a writing a book or writing a screenplay or writing about what you said once in an interview, is that if you can look back and have had many different experiences and been present in all of them,

then that's a life that has been lived. If you were to look back, what do you think Chris Atkins is? Through linness, through line, uh, love and fun. That's perfect simple. I'm a very simple guy. And like you said, I always said he with the most stories wins because if you've got stories, you've had adventure. If you've had adventure, you've lived the life that was Christopher Atkins. And I don't know. If you're feeling nostalgic, go and give our

classic movie Blue Lagoon. Give it a watch. If you like this podcast, please head over to Apple Podcasts to rate and review. Now what with Berk Shields? It actually really helps other people find us, so please do it. That's it for us today, talk to you next week now. What is produced by the wonderful Julia Weaver with help from Darby Masters. Our executive producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by Bahid Fraser and Christian Bowman. A

special thanks to nicky Etre and Will Pearson. If you liked this episode, please subscribe to the show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shows.