Mel Brooks, the director of Spaceballs, also played the role of Yogurt in the sci-fi comedy. However, as he revealed in an interview, it was not without its dangers.
Mel Brooks is not only a director but also an actor in the sci-fi comedy Spaceballs. As the Yoda parody Yogurt, he taught Lone Starr about the power of the Schwartz (not the Force).
While Yoda is completely green, Mel Brooks was painted with golden body paint. However, this turned out to be quite harmful, as the director and actor revealed in a December 2012 interview with avclub.com.
Here you can see a trailer for Spaceballs:
“Aside from a life-threatening rash, everything was fine”
The interviewer asked Mel Brooks if he had any specific memories that stood out while he was directing Spaceballs painted in gold.
He dryly replied, “Aside from a life-threatening rash, everything was fine.” He further explained that during the shooting, his eyes had started to tear up due to the smell of the paint.
However, the director wanted to push through and took Benadryl (a medication for allergy symptoms) to suppress his body’s allergic reactions to the paint. However, he himself acknowledged, “It was really terrible; it was dangerous.”
Then the interviewer asked if they couldn’t use non-toxic paint for the role.
“They said it was non-toxic – they assured me of that. And it was toxic,” explained Mel Brooks. But then he laughed and concluded the anecdote: “I should attribute it to show business, but I almost died.”
The director even took on two roles in his Star Wars parody. He not only played Yogurt but also the parody of Emperor Palpatine: President Skroob, the incompetent leader of the planet Spaceball.
What also feels like a parody in the style of Spaceballs, but was unironically edited into the Star Wars films, are the commercial clips for a beer brand. These are currently being celebrated on Twitter:
