Perkins : I grew up in Guilford , but part of our farm was in Halifax , and another part was actually over the border in Colrain , Massachusetts .
Sherman : You were born in New York City and moved to Vermont . What was that transition like for you , and how old were you when it happened ?
Perkins : I was six , so it was a great age . I hadn ’ t really formed meaningful relationships , so for me , it was fantastic . It was probably the best thing that could have happened to me . I really thrived living out in the country . My parents got divorced , and that ’ s why we moved to Vermont . My mom got remarried and decided to leave the city , and my father at the time was very much into being a Manhattanite . My mother , who was a smalltown girl , just decided to move to my grandfather ’ s farm , because he had
passed away . It was a place that we had just used in the summers , and then we moved up there full-time . We were four miles from the bus stop for school , so we had snowmobiles and toboggans to get us down the hill for school . I just loved it . It was the perfect place for me .
Sherman : The movie Big is a comedy , but it is also a commentary and comparison on adult life vs . childhood . Do you long for your childhood ? Or are you happy being an adult ?
Perkins : That ’ s a good question . I think as you get older , it ’ s not that you long for your childhood , but the memories become faded . There ’ s a familiarity to your childhood , and there ’ s a comfort in your childhood , especially when you start losing your parents . I ’ ve lost both my parents in the last five years , and I think I want to hold on to those memories , because they ’ re starting to fade . I would never want to be 12 again . I wouldn ’ t want to be in my twenties again — and I might even throw in my thirties — but there is a comfort in childhood memories as you get older that grounds you . For me , a lot of that was nature . I lived in Los Angeles for 38 years , and growing up where I grew up , it was just such a different experience and a different feeling .
Sherman : Everyone knows Penny Marshall from Laverne and Shirley , but Big was only the second film she directed . What was your experience working with Penny as a director ?
Perkins : What I loved about Penny is that she came from an actor ’ s perspective . It was actually a good thing that she was sort of still a newbie at
Allstar Picture Library Limited . / Alamy Stock Photo
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