Why Jerry O'Connell Once Decided To Let Live Cockroaches Co-Star In His Mouth

John Payson's 1996 comedy "Joe's Apartment" was the first theatrical feature put out by MTV Studios, which seems like a miscalculation. Surely MTV, still a giant in popular culture at the time, would want to put out a concert film, or something more closely related to the network's musical content. Instead, they made a feature film about a poor sap who has to share his dingy New York apartment with millions of singing, dancing cockroaches. It was based on Payon's 1992 short film that played on MTV in between music videos.

"Joe's Apartment" is plenty gross. Joe (Jerry O'Connell), a fresh-faced hayseed, moved to New York, instantly weaseling his way into a rent-controlled apartment. The catch was that he had several million insect roommates who chanted and sang in unison. The cockroaches' singing was provided by a cappella giants Rockapella, and they were visually realized using super-advanced CGI provided by Blue Sky Studios. Many of the cockroaches were played by actual bugs, using advanced and (no doubt) onerous insect-wrangling techniques. 

Needless to say, it wasn't a huge hit. It only appeals to a very specific breed of weirdo who can get behind revolting, scatological slapstick, but who also owns Rockapella records. In brief, "Joe's Apartment" is my jam. 

There was a scene early in "Joe's Apartment" wherein Joe, eating his breakfast cereal, didn't realize two cockroaches were on his spoon. To shoot that scene, there was no CGI, and O'Connell actually put real cockroaches in his mouth. In Vol. 3, issue #2 of Sci-Fi Entertainment Magazine (from 1996), O'Connell said he was determined to put the bugs in his mouth, knowing that Nicolas Cage, an actor he admired, ate a real cockroach on camera for the film "Vampire's Kiss."

It should be noted that O'Connell didn't actually eat the roaches. Indeed, the scene merely required him to put two live cockroaches in his mouth — on a spoon — for only a few moments. It was a scary proposition, as the roaches could easily have skittered off the spoon and into his mouth at a moment's notice, but it seems the roaches behaved themselves. About the scene, O'Connell admitted his bravery. He recalled the "Vampire's Kiss" scene wherein Nicolas Cage, playing a man who thinks he's a vampire, eats a bug. In "Vampire's Kiss," it was wholly unsimulated; Cage actually ate that bug. And, O'Connell figured, if a devoted actor like Nicolas Cage can eat a bug, surely he could stick a few in his mouth. O'Connell said: 

"John [Payson] was afraid to ask me to do it. [...] But we were suing these rubber roaches, and I just said, 'Hey, this is not going to work.' Besides, I didn't want to look like a wimp [...]. When I saw that scene [in 'Vampire's Kiss'], I thought it was pretty disgusting. [...] I never thought, 'Wow, I'd really like to do that someday.'"

But do it he did. Well, at least part of it. O'Connell was not a wimp and stuck the roaches in his mouth. He and Nicolas Cage will have something to talk about the next time they have dinner together. For katsaridaphobes, "Joe's Apartment" is grueling, featuring scenes of real roaches scuttling around the floor, and a scene wherein O'Connell's co-star, Megan Ward (of "Freaked" fame), had to have hundreds of live cockroaches dumped down her dress. It's a creepy, crawly movie that happily makes pee-pee and poo-poo jokes. Watch it immediately on VOD.