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Twenty years on, School of Rock remains one of the most fun, beloved movies of the early part of the 2000s. But it got off to a tough start, as Richard Linklater recently revealed that he had to fire one of the original child actors on School of Rock for having a massive ego.

In a new oral history published in Rolling Stone, Linklater said that School of Rock got off to a rough start before cameras even rolled, as the original Marco (eventually played by James Hosey) was upset about his lack of lines. “I shouldn’t even be saying all this publicly.… It was in rehearsals. There was a kid who wasn’t with the program, so there were tough decisions to be made. I think he wanted a bigger part.”

School of Rock actress Caitlin Hale (Marta) confirmed, saying, “Rick is correct. I don’t want to shit on anybody,...

Rolling Stone magazine celebrated the 20th anniversary of “School of Rock” with a new oral history in which many of the child actors from the Richard Linklater hit film opened up on the tough years they faced after the film’s blockbuster release. The Jack Black-led comedy was a box office hit in 2003 with $131 million worldwide, and it’s widely considered a bonafide comedy classic. Imagine going from Hollywood sensation back to high-school or middle-school teen. That was the reality for many of the “School of Rock” cast.

“It was tough. I came back to school, and I was like a three-headed freak, basically,” said Joey Gaydos Jr., who played lead guitarist Zack “Zack-Attack” Mooneyham in the film. “I came back with all this culture in my brain to a pretty one-horse town outside of Detroit. And I was looked at like a complete weirdo, and that was hard.