At the Keswick, Cary Elwes has ‘Princess Bride’ tales … as you wish

AS CHARMING farm boy Westley in "The Princess Bride," actor Cary Elwes set the chivalry bar high for men looking to court women after 1987, when the film was released.

After all, he did scale the Cliffs of Insanity, battle Rodents of Unusual Size (R.O.U.S.) and develop an immunity to iocane powder, all to save his beloved Buttercup.

But in a recent interview with the Daily News, Elwes said that there's a lesson about life and love that anyone can take from the film, and it's about recognizing when you're a part of something special.

"My favorite line, with regards to [advice] is, 'This is true love. You think this happens every day?' " Elwes said.

Now, fans of "The Princess Bride" in the Philadelphia area can be a part of something special that doesn't happen every day either - an intimate evening with Elwes at the Keswick Theatre that will include a screening of "The Princess Bride" followed by a discussion with Elwes about the making of the film.

"The Princess Bride: An Inconceivable Evening with Cary Elwes" is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the theater on Keswick Avenue near Easton Road, in Glenside.

Elwes (which, as he says, is pronounced like Elvis but with a 'w') is touring in support of his book, As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, which he coauthored with Joe Layden. The book was released in October and became a New York Times best-seller.

It was in book form that Elwes himself first came across The Princess Bride tale. He was just 13 when his stepfather gave him a copy of William Goldman's classic novel.

"I was just so taken with the intelligence of the piece," Elwes said. "It was not only a fun fairy tale, it was really funny. I'd never read anything like that before. I felt like he was sitting in the same room, telling me the story."

So, Elwes was nervous when director Rob Reiner, who lists The Princess Bride as his favorite book, cast him in the role of Westley when he was just 23.

But, luckily, the one day Elwes got himself kicked off the set, Reiner did, too - because neither could stop laughing at Billy Crystal, who played magician Miracle Max.

"Rob Reiner told him to just improvise as soon as the camera started rolling," Elwes said of Crystal. "So he started doing medieval Yiddish stand-up, and Rob and I got banished. They put [Reiner] in the hallway watching a monitor."

The film was a modest box office success, but through home video and cable television it developed a large and dedicated fan base that spanned generations, gender and race.

Elwes, who went on to star in such films as Mel Brooks' "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" and "Saw," said it was about 10 years after "The Princess Bride" was released that he realized just how popular it had become.

"I was in New York in a restaurant and I was ordering a hamburger, and the waitress said, 'How do you want that cooked?' I said 'Medium rare,' and she said 'As you wish,' " Elwes said. "I said 'Excuse me?' And she just winked at me and wandered off. It was wonderfully extraordinary - and then it started happening more and more."

Several of the characters in "The Princess Bride" film, including Elwes' Westley, had catchphrases. Westley's was, "As you wish." Mandy Patinkin's character, Inigo Montoya, had, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die." And Wallace Shawn's evil mastermind, Vizzini, often repeated the phrase, "Inconceivable!"

Though Elwes writes in his book that the words "As you wish" will probably be etched on his tombstone - and he's "totally cool with that" - he said that Shawn is haunted by his famous catchphrase even more.

"Wally gets it the most," Elwes said. "He said he even gets it if he drops his keys."

Inconceivable!

For Elwes' book, which he was inspired to write after attending a 25th-anniversary cast reunion, the actor interviewed many of his fellow cast members.

Among the things he learned in his research was that Arnold Schwarzenegger was once considered for the role of Fezzik, played by Andre the Giant in the film.

"I also had no idea that Wally Shawn was afraid of heights - or that he was afraid he'd be fired," Elwes said. Shawn's fear of getting fired stemmed from the fact that he played an angry Sicilian but could not produce a Sicilian accent. And Shawn's fear of heights was only exacerbated when they filmed the Cliffs of Insanity scene in which he clung to Andre.

Goldman, who also penned the movie script, is quoted in Elwes' book as saying, "This movie was a remarkable experience - the best experience I've ever had."

That's saying a lot for the guy who also wrote the screenplays for "All the President's Men," "The Stepford Wives" and "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid."

But there's just something about "The Princess Bride" that is, as Elwes writes, "indeed magical" and makes anything - even true love and rodents of unusual sizes - seem possible.

Of all the tales Elwes has heard regarding how much the movie has meant to fans, he said the most touching are stories of children battling cancer who say the film is the only thing that makes them smile, or stories about how people have watched the film with their loved ones in the hospital as they've passed on.

Those are poignant, real-life moments for a movie that tells us "Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while."

"It's really, really touching," Elwes said. "All I can do is hug and share the love. I feel very blessed that I'm a part of something that resonates with people."

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