Released nearly 20 years ago, "Wild Things" was one of most popular crime and drama movies of the 90's. Back then, the success of movies such as "Basic Instinct" gave way to a whole slew of so-called erotic thrillers. The lustful, erotic sex scenes featuring Denise Richards and Neve Campbell made this movie a big-time blockbuster. A lot of the cast members started their acting careers with the movie's premiere, so let's see what are they up to now. Towards the end of this slideshow, you will notice that Denise Richards and Neve Campbell are STILL sizzling hot!
Sam Lombardo is the lead character in the movie (the role is starred by Matt Dillon). In the movie, Matt's character has a lot of different "mini-roles," including being a boatman, a ladies man, and a guidance counselor. He also got himself in trouble from time to time (by breaking the personal boundaries of various teachers and students), but he didn't do anything illegal (like the alleged rape).
Matt Dillon went on to make a complete career for himself after the movie's end. Toda,y the Lombardo character is just one small part of Matt's resume. His IMDB profile lists The Outsiders, The Flamingo Kid, Singles, and Drugstore Cowboy as just some of the roles he starred. In 2018, Matt is gearing up to play a brilliant serial killer in Lars Von Trier's "The House That Jack Built."
Bill Murray is perhaps the actor that got the most out of his role in Wild Things - his role in the movie has been described by fans as an original 1990s "Saul Goodman," the Breaking Bad character that went on to get his own spinoff show. Bill played the role of Ken, a public defender that was willing and giving his best to defend an accused statutory rapist - not something a lot of people are willing to do.
Of course, Murray was a big star even before his role in Wild Things, but it is indisputable that the movie helped propel his career into a higher gear. His role as Ken helped Bill to get typecast for some of his future roles as a "shyster." After Wild Things, Bill briefly became an indie superstar in the cult movie "Lost in Translation," and the "Wes Anderson Oeuvre." In his personal life, Bill is an original party crasher and even has been known to even work as a bartender.
Cory Pendergast played the role of Jimmy Leach - who is the class clown, always trying to entertain everyone in the room. Aside from being the class clown, Jimmy is also Mr. Lombardo's star sailing pupil, which places him in a situation where he has to trade boat labor in order to get free lessons. During the movie, Sam gives Jimmy advice about how to become "a real boatman," which of course, Jimmy appreciates.
After his role as Jimmy Leach, Cory went on to have a pretty decent career for himself. He appeared briefly in "There's Something About Mary" (in which Matt Dillon also had a role), and then went on to star in the movie "18," together with co-stars Toi Svane Stepp (Nicole), Dee Wallace and Joyce DeWitt. For some reason, the film's negative (the original copy) had mysteriously disappeared, which is why the movie never got released. Today he does various commercials for Netflix, National Car Rental and Macy's.
At the Blue Bay high school, where most of the movie's scenes take place, Art Maddox is one of only two friends Sam Lombardo has (the other being Jimmy Leach). Art is also a guidance counselor, but he doesn't end up in the same amount of trouble as Sam does. Sometimes, the two characters hang out at the yacht club, where Art serves as Sam's rock during the turbulent times.
After Wild Things, Dennis Neal had tried to keep busy, by "logging" into a couple of movie credits each year. Today, he mostly does TV guest spots (like Arli$$, Even Stevens, and Moesha). Interestingly, this was pretty much the same thing he did before he got a role in Wild Things. Next August, Dennis is going to get a new chance on the big screen, as a leading role in "Heartbreak," a movie about a depressed professional billiard champion.
Kevin is another actor who got a lot out of his role in Wild Things. In the movie, he starred as Ray Duquette, where he played as a dirty cop from the "Department of Sex Crimes." Ray is completely focused on nailing Lombardo for the crimes he didn't commit, which pits him as the bad guy in the movie. During the plot's twist, Suzie is the one who convinced Sam to rope in Ray, but she had no intention of sharing the money.
Kevin Bacon is such a ubiquitous actor, that anyone would have a hard time describing the types of roles, characters, and genres the actor prefers to play. You can basically link Kevin to any other Hollywood actor in six movies or less, which is why the infamous rule "Six Degrees of Bacon" exists in the first place. He stars in a few online-based TV shows as well, such as Amazon's "I Love Dick," with co-star Katherine Hahn.
Aphne Rubin-Vega plays the role of Gloria Perez, who is Ray's character in the movie. During the movie's various plot twists, Gloria is worried that something else may be going on behind the scenes, but sadly her character gets too little information, too late, which is why she couldn't do much to stop Ray's and Suzie's schemes to set up Sam Lombardo, or any of the other characters.
Aphne was born in Panama, but that didn't stop her from making a name for herself in Hollywood. She played a key role in Philip Seymour Hoffman's debut movie, called "Jack Goes Boating." Before that movie, Aphne had a small role in "Flawless," with Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robert De Niro. In recent years, she had a recurring role in season two of "Smash," where she played as Eileen Rand's publicist.
In the movie, Ruby (her last name has not been given), runs "Smilin' Jack's Fish Camp," which is a small-time bait shop and gator wrestling exhibition. Ruby is Walter's mother and Suzie's surrogate grandmother. In the movie, she got famous for always having a cigarette present during her scenes, and as well as for always answering the right questions before she even is asked.
Carrie Snodgress had a great acting career even before her role in Wild Things. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as a housewife in "Diary of a Mad Housewife." Afterwards, she stayed busy in Hollywood with a lot of TV-based work, on shows such as The X Files, Murder She Wrote, In the Heat of the Night, ER, and Touched by an Angel. She died in 2004 at the age of 58, of heart and liver failure.
Marc Macaulay played the role of Walter, Ruby's son. He is a slow-burning character, meaning he is building upon repressed anger on a daily basis. Walter's character is first met at Jack's Fish Camp, the bait shop located by his mom's trailer park. In a few scenes, Walter seems to be engaged in various alligator slapstick. People had to wait until later in the movie's plot to learn that he is Ruby's son.
Marc Macaulay is one of the most prolific actors to come out of Wild Things. He has starred in over 140 movies and shows to this day. That makes it highly likely that you have seen him in many other roles apart from Wild Things. He is such a prolific actor, that he even got to play different characters in two of the film's straight-to-video sequels. He also had a smaller role in "2 Fast 2 Furious."
Robert Wagner, who plays the role of Tom Baxter, is Sandra Van Ryan's lawyer and incidentally, he is also the father of Sam's girlfriend, Barbara. He was so upset to learn of the alleged rape, that he confronted Sam in "The Club," with the words "Maybe you didn't hear me, Lombardo. You're finished in Blue Bay. And if I find you around my daughter again, you'll be finished, period. Get the f*** out of here."
Robert Wagner has a lot of different movie and TV-based roles over the years, although some would say he didn't get as many different roles as some of the other actors to come out of Wild Things. Soon, Robert is bound to play an important-sounding character called the "Evil One" on the upcoming supernatural comedy series, "Donna's Inferno." He's also set to appear in "What Happened to Monday?"
Theresa Russell plays as Sandra Van Ryan (who is represented in the case by the aforementioned lawyer, Tom Baxter). She is the mom of on the raped girls, but during the movie, you are not going to think that she is a good mother or role-model for her daughter. Work-wise, Sandra is a "jet set" real estate agent, meaning she has the money to influence the other characters.
After Wild Things, Theresa starred in a few different roles, although she didn't get to the same level of critical acclaim as some of the other actors on the list. She went on to star in Kevin Williamson's mildly successful TV series, "Glory Days." She also played in another role as a "dubious" mother, as the character Sara Taylor, in the TV movie "Liz and Dick."
Jeff Perry plays as Bryce Hunter, a local D.A., who although he appears crass in the office, is a compassionate professional in the courtroom. At the beginning, he is after Sam Lombardo because Sandra Van Ryan and the other characters put him up to the task, but after Sam gets exonerated for his crimes, Bryce switched to the good side.
Actor Jeff Perry has logged in a lot of hours even before his role in Wild Things. Before this movie, he played Katimski, a gay English teacher on the "My So Called Life" show. He also played as a tech-savvy police inspector called Harvey Leek, a character with whom he made 122 episodes for the show Nash Bridges. He's also done smaller roles on The West Wing, ER, Lost, Prison Break and Fringe.
Eduardo Yanez, plays as Frankie Condo, who is Sandra Van Ryan's favorite deckhand. To his surprise, in one of the scenes, he hears Sandra say that he "can't handle her boat the way Sam can," which was something that devastated Eduardo's character. Still, he defended Sandra's honor by running Sam's car into the swamp and knocking him out in front of an alligator.
Although Eduardo Yanez has not done a lot of movies in the US, he does have a prolific career in Mexico. He is actually one of Mexico's biggest stars, having starred in 63 different movies and shows. These shows include the telenovelas Distilling Love, Fuego en la Sangre, Wild Heart, True Love, and Amores con Trampa. He'll soon be starring in "Make Love Great Again."
Toi Svanne Stepp plays the role of Nicole, who is Kelly's friend and a fellow cheerleader. She works part-time at the car wash, which is why she was supposed to wash Sam's muddied jeep. Nicole is a rule-conscious character, which is why she insisted that Sam had to produce the car wash coupon that he had originally purchased at a school fundraiser.
Toi is a Florida native, and sadly, she hasn't done a lot of acting after her role in Wild Things. She did have a brief appearance in "From Justin to Kelly" and had a guest spot on Dawson's Creek. Afterwards, she took a decade off from acting in order to start a family. She got back into acting in 1998, for a small-time role in the movie "Creature."
The movie "Creature," that starred Toi Svane Stepp, is a sci-fi horror mini-series featuring Craig T. Nelson and Kim Cattrall. The movie, which is based on the book "White Shark," by Jaws author Peter Benchley, tells the story of a small US town that is being terrorized by a giant "shark monster." Luckily, unlike his other books, this one doesn't feature tornadoes.
Similarly to some of the other actors in today's story, Toi Svanne is also currently filming the movie "18," whose negative (that's the original copy) got lost in production, which means that the actors and film crew have to actually recreate and recapture the entire movie sequence from scratch. It will be interesting to see if they manage to keep the negative this time.
Jennifer Taylor plays the role of Barbara Baxter, who is Sam's girlfriend, and daughter of Tom Baxter, the hard-hitting lawyer that is hell-bent on attacking Sam after he learned of his alleged rape attempt. Although Barbara is only in her late-twenties, that means that her "tenure" as Sam's girlfriend is slowly coming to an end, which wasn't good for Barbara, since she still loved Sam.
Jennifer Taylor has had success in different careers apart from acting. She was the first runner-up for Miss Florida in 1995 (that's a few years before Wild Things), and interestingly, Wild Things was only her second acting attempt, which means that she had to particularly charm the film crew to win the audition for her role as Sam's girlfriend, Barbara Baxter.
After her role as Barbara in Wild Things, Jennifer went on to star in a lot of different movies and shows, such as Arli$$, Diagnosis Murder, Charmed, NCIS, and Shameless, and she did a four-episode stint on Burn Notice as Bruce Campbell's "sugar mother," called Elsa. She is also known for her role in the hit comedy show "Two and a half men."
Jennifer wanted to quit acting altogether before being offered the part of Chelsea, Charlie Sheen's first serious girlfriend, in the show "Two and a Half Men." Before being offered this larger role, she played three other characters in the same show (which is not something that happens very often), including playing a character in the show's pilot episode.
Denise Richards played the role of Kelly Van Ryan, who is Suzan's sister. It appears that the film producers knew that Richards was going to be the biggest attraction for "boob enthusiasts," because even when she's not wearing a bikini, she seems to be often dressed in either a sheer one-piece swimsuit or she's entirely topless.
Denise went on to have a great and varied career in Hollywood - she acted alongside actors Dolph Lundgren and Jonathan Lipnicki as a shady FBI agent in the action thriller hit, "Altitude." Even in real life, Richards mirrored her character's bad romantic choices, but she managed to turn her life around after she divorced Charlie Sheen.
After she divorced fellow actor Charlie Sheen, Denise sued for full-custody over their two children. Even after her dubious romantic attempts, it is safe to assume that she is going to be a better mother than the character of Sandra Van Ryan. It is worth noting that in Wild Things, Richards played a spoiled rich girl, who despite the wealth, still couldn't wait for her mother to die so she can get access to her trust fund.
After her role in Wild Things, Denise starred in "American Violence" as a leading psychologist who studies a death row serial killer, which sets the dark tone of the movie. Richards also went on to star in a cult-favorite movie called Drop Dead Gorgeous after which she continued with a few TV guest spots and currently she has five films in postproduction for 2017/2018.
Neve Campbell played the role of Suzie Toller - who is a secretly brilliant delinquent, that has a personal vendetta and an intricate master plan to turn things around in her favor. As the movie plot goes, different characters complement Kelly on her "performance," but none of them ever suspected Suzie Toller for anything insidious.
As an actress, Neve Campbell has done a few 180 degree turns in her career, changing from being a good girl (an image Neve depicted in the Scream movies and six seasons of the Fox melodrama, "Party of Five"), to a complete "bad girl" in Wild Things. By some admissions, her character in Wild Things was one of the most captivating in the movie.
Neve went on to have a great career and has not lost steam in recent years. Until a few days ago (before the cancellation notice from Netflix), she had a great time playing the role of Leann Harvey on House of Cards. Apart from that, she also had a sexy cameo appearing on another hit TV show - "Mad Men," as a flight attendant for Don Draper.
Since her role as Lean Harvey in House of Cards is coming to an end, Neve is gearing up for a new role - alongside The Rock, in a set-action thriller based in China, called Skyscraper. Apart from that, some of her most iconic roles in the past include Party of Five (a TV show), Manhattan (another TV show), An Amish Murder, and The Glass Man (filmed in 2011).
