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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jerry O’Connell Breaking Down Barriers Between Man And Roach

Mark Kennedy The Associated Pres

Jerry O’Connell has a nasty roach problem. Flicking on the kitchen light, the little twitchy critters never scatter. They just stand there, looking up at him. Then they munch deliriously.

“They’re smart,” O’Connell says. “They know something happened with me, they sense I had a change of heart. Now I have to go shopping for them.”

This change of heart happened after O’Connell starred in MTV’s first feature film, “Joe’s Apartment,” a cockroach-infested comedy where the bugs talk, sing and do the conga. As a pubescent he went from munching cookies in Duncan Hines commercials to snagging the pudgy role in Rob Reiner’s 1986 much-beloved “Stand by Me.”

Fresh off the set of “Jerry Maguire” with Tom Cruise, the 22-year-old O’Connell has returned to TV to lead a ragtag band of time travelers in Fox’s “Sliders.” Yet it’s his time co-starring with the six-legged insects that forever transformed the slimmed-down, blue-eyed New Yorker into a bug aficionado. Yuck.

1. You stuff two live roaches into your mouth in “Joe’s Apartment.” Are you nuts or just a dedicated actor?

O’Connell: They were going to use computer-generated roaches and I said to the director, ‘You know, it would be really freaky if I put two live ones in my mouth.’ I know if I were to see this film, that would be something I’d like to see. And the director was so nice and he said, ‘No. I would never ask you do do that. As a friend of mine, I really don’t want to know you if you do it.’ But then some of the crew members heard me and egged me on.

1-1/2. How many takes did it take?

O’Connell: About four or five. But it was before lunch so nothing was coming up. My only concern was that the roaches were going to lay eggs in my mouth. Oh, and roach breath.

2. Did you have trouble getting dates after that gross-out scene?

O’Connell: It was a little tough, I’m not going to kid you. But I drank a lot of bottles of Listerine and the crew would bring me their breath fresheners every day.

3. Were the roaches better treated than you on the set?

O’Connell: Look, there were 2,000 roaches at the beginning. At the end of the three-month shoot, we had 8,000. So, they partied. They got more action than I did!

4. Tell me you don’t crush bugs regularly.

O’Connell: I had a lot of roaches growing up in New York. My brother and I kept them as pets. I was a roach killer before “Joe’s Apartment.” But I really think this film is going to break the barrier between man and roach. I think that humans squash first and ask questions later. And I believe this film is going to change all that. I think you’re going to see a strong interspecies relationship. Hey, they don’t hurt anyone, they don’t bite. They’re urban crickets.

5. You play a gee-whiz grad student every week in “Sliders,” but when you go home does your VCR say the correct time?

O’Connell: Naw. I even have trouble brewing a pot of coffee. It even takes me a good two hours to figure out how to set up my voice mail. The character I play is a physics genius but math and sciences were not always my strong point. I’m hoping my 10th-grade algebra teacher is watching the show to see how much I’ve improved.

The following fields overflowed: SUPCAT = COLUMN, QUESTION & ANSWER - Five Questions CREDIT = Mark Kennedy The Associated Press