Book Review Discussion: As You Wish by Cary Elwes

Book: As You Wish by Cary Elwes (subtitle: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride)
Genre: NF Memoir
Rating:★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For: Fun
From: Bought at the book signing

Short Synopsis: If feel like I've talked your ear off about this book already, but have yet to do an official review. So, as you know I'm sure, this book is about Cary's experience being picked for and then acting in the wonderful 1987 movie, The Princess Bride. It starts when he describes how he got chosen for the part and all the feelings he had. He was a mere 23 years old or so! And then he describes meeting all the other actors and what they were like. Of course, he tells many interesting incidents and stories about shooting the movie and what life was like on the set. Awesome!

My Response: Awesome! Ha. I have gushed and gushed already about this book, but this is all mostly because I've been such a huge fan of this movie from day one when it came out in the theater. So to have this behind the scenes look has been a blast for me and then on top of that to have met and seen this actor twice this past year and get a feel for what he's like (which is way different from what I'd thought all these years by the way!) has just been stuff to gush about.

Some fun stories I loved from the book to tease you with:

• when Cary broke his foot and limped through a few scenes.
• when Cary meet and fell instantly in love with Buttercup
• when Andre let loose some gas during a scene and everyone couldn't stop laughing
• when Mandy (Inigo) and Cary practiced their guts out for the "world's best sword fight."
• when one of the ROUSs was arrested the night before his big scene
• the awesomeness of filming in a real life castle
• the not so awesomeness of filming in English weather
• singing on the set with Mandy, Rob Reiner and Chris Sarandan
• when Cary laughed so hard at Billy Crystal that they had to bring in his rubber dummy to stand in for the scene
• how the Fire Swamp is the first scene they shot and the sword fight is the last. Interesting.

And on and on it goes. 

Bottom Line: I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you love the movie, you'll love this book. I promise.

Let's Talk About: What's your opinion on actors writing a book on their experiences? I must admit, when I first heard he was doing this, I sort of rolled my eyes and felt skeptical. Well, in the end, it was too fun to pass up!

Other Reviews:

As You Wish is a love letter to a film that really has stood the test of generations - and as a fan myself, that made this audio a great listen. Knowing what I know now, I have to go watch the movie again. From The Book Nest

His book is not a self-serving bit of megalomania (a worry I had since it is written by a Hollywood star!) but more of a tribute and a very touching personal recollection of what could be described as the best job of his life. From Beth's Book Nook Blog

One of the things that shines through the pages is how beloved André the Giant (André Rous­si­moff) was. The author seems to genuinely like André, as well as much of the crew, and the stories about him are both endearing and entertaining. From Man of la Book

The biggest surprise for me was how much training the actors had to have for the big sword fight scene. From At Home With Books

The sword fight, just for fun: