Texas Chainsaw Massacre Star Confirms He Was 'Paid' for His Role in Drugs

"Night Court star John Larroquette provided the opening narration for Tobe Hooper’s iconic horror movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A long-standing rumor, one of the many surrounding the rough and ready making of the film, is that Larroquette was not paid for his time with cash but instead was supplied weed for his participation. According to the star himself, that is exactly what did happen.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is Tobe Hooper’s 1974 movie about a group of young people who become the victims of a backwoods family of cannibals, which includes the chainsaw-wielding Leatherface. Seen as one of the most influential horror movies of all time, the harrowing movie is grim, gritting and earned a place among the best video nasties of the 70s and early 80s. Being made in a time when things were not done under quite the same intense scrutiny as today’s movies, many aspects of the creation of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would not exactly meet standards now. While speaking with Parade, Larroquette was asked about internet rumors of his unconventional pay deal.

His response was:

“Totally true. Tobe [Hooper] heard I was in town and asked for an hour of my time to narrate something for this movie he just did. I said ‘Fine!’ It was a favor. 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!”

Having delivered the opening narrative of 1974’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as a favor to director Tobe Hooper, Larroquette returned to the franchise to provide the same narrative role on the 2003 reboot, and his voice was also heard in 2006’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Twelve years later, Larroquette was back one more time to deliver the opening monologue of the latest Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot.

While his favor to Tobe Hooper certainly ended up being a party piece for Larroquette, as he noted in his interview, “You do something for free in the 1970s and get a little money in the 90s.” That money came when the actor became part of the cast of Night Court in 1984. Larroquette played Assistant District Attorney Dan Fielding in the popular sitcom, and he is the only star returning for the new sequel series, which arrives on NBC next week.

This time around, Larroquette’s Fielding will be on the other side of the courtroom in a new role of the court's public defender. Abby Stone, the on-screen daughter of the original Judge Harry T. Stone, is the new main character, having taken over her father’s role presiding over the municipal court of Manhattan’s night shift. Night Court is scheduled to premiere on NBC on Jan. 17. It will air at 8 p.m. as part of NBC's Tuesday night comedy block."