It would be inaccurate, probably, to describe Rick Moranis as “reclusive.” In much the same way that he’s not “retired” from acting—just busy with other stuff, mostly, and not especially moved to shift those priorities around—Moranis seems perfectly happy to sit down for a chat with people, provided he sees a good reason for doing so. In the case of his new interview on this week’s installment of Disney+’s Prop Culture, those reasons are presumably two-fold. The first is a lingering affection for Honey, I Shrunk The Kids, one of his first big starring roles; the other, we assume, is Disney politely asking that he do it, as part of its cross-promotional efforts in support of both the light-hearted docuseries, as well as the upcoming Shrunk, which will mark one of Moranis’ first live-action acting performances in more than two decades.
And honestly, it’s pretty slight as interviews go, as host Dan Lanigan effuses about the few props he could scrounge up from Wayne Szalinski’s old wardrobe, and Moranis—extremely true to form—politely demonstrates that he’s not really a “gushing about old movie props” kind of dude. The one exception: Glasses, apparently, because Rick Moranis is not a man to turn down a free pair of prescription specs. “I pretty much have a pair of glasses from every film that I did,” he says, cheerfully noting that the Shrunk glasses have gone in and out of style a few times in the 30 years since the movie was made. Meanwhile, a broken Casio watch is mostly an excuse for Moranis to deadpan a little. “I didn’t break the watch,” he muses. “When I gave the prop guy back the watch, it was perfectly fine. So I don’t want a bill for this watch.”
Moranis also talks a bit about the movie itself, including his tendency to annoy director Joe Johnston by trying to work more jokes into the script. Mostly, though, it’s just kind of neat to see him—reclusive or not, catching a Moranis in the wild is a bit like a major birdwatching coup. (Also, if you watch the rest of the episode, Lanigan commissions artists to recreate the original, since-altered version of the first movie’s shrink ray, a prop that even Moranis is forced to admit is pretty freakin’ cool.)