Ryan's Secret Movie Shame


Although I had nothing to do with making it, I must confess that there is a movie available that I appear in that is my Secret Shame. It's called Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space, a 1985 feature-length movie made in Seattle by Michelle Licter and Jeff Farrell. This movie is available on home video (Continental 1083V -- though it may be out of print now), and turns up frequently on the USA network's Gilbert Gottfried's Up All Night. Somewhere near the end of the movie I appear, in all my 18-year-old glory, as "The Poor Sap" who tries to pick up on the antagonist's girlfriend and then gets to watch as the bully is punched out by the movie's hero. I don't have any lines but I do get some close-ups and am referred to in the dialog. Despite the success Michelle and Jeff had with the movie (Michelle is now a successful screenwriter living in Los Angeles), I really wish this movie had never come out. People I barely know have rented Space Vixens and then recognize me in the movie. It's so embarrassing.

So just remember, kids, always be careful about whose project you appear in. It might come back to haunt you. (Little known fact: While I was living in England in 1993, I came across a copy of Teenage Vixens in a video rental-return shop in Oxford Street in London on sale for five pounds. Imagine my surprise. What was even more surprising was when I reported this back to Michelle who told me, "That's funny, we never sold the overseas rights to the movie. It's a bootleg!" Who'd a thunk it?)

UPDATE: Now available on DVD!

Credits:

Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space
83 minutes. 16mm film. Filmed throughout 1980, released 1985.
Cast. . . Lisa Schwedop, Howard Scott, Amy Crumpacker, Sterling Ramberg, Julian Schembri.
Written by Michelle Licter and Jeff Ferrell, Produced by Michelle Licter, Directed by Jeff Ferrell.


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