Bruce Bogtrotter Looks Completely Different Now

TriStar Pictures

The actor who played Bruce Bogtrotter, in Matilda, you guessed it, looks completely different from how he did as a child, proving eating huge amounts of cake can only be a good thing. 

Back in the comfortable salad days of the 1990s we all cheered on Bruce – real name Jimmy Karz – in the hope he’d murk Miss Trunchbull in the form of inhaling an entire plate of chocolate cake.

Now, 33-years-old, Karz is a far cry from the kid we knew in the 90s and seems to have given up on acting entirely.

BTW, here’s a video of adult Bruce attempting his cake challenge again:

From 12 years of age – when he starred in Matilda – Karz has two other acting credits to his name. You might remember his single scene in The Wedding Singer where he played a young boy who was rebuffed by the girl he likes at a bar mitzvah.

Apart from that he was in one episode of ER in 1998, and that’s pretty much about it.

Karz did reunite with the cast of Matilda in 2013 where the much more friendly looking Miss Trunchbull served him a considerably smaller cake.

Speaking to The Do about the original cake scene, Karz said:

That scene took about three weeks to film, from what I recall.

I had to be on set all day, and I had to wear the same outfit every day. The chocolate was already encrusted on this shirt I was wearing.

For continuity’s sake, every day I had to have the chocolate painted on my face the way it was painted the day before. I despised the smell of chocolate for a few weeks after that. I realized then that acting is not easy.

Karz graduated with a degree in Communications from St. John’s University in New York and worked for MTV News for a couple of years.

When he got bored of that he began studying medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, so he could be Dr Bruce Bogtrotter soon.

As for the rest of the cast of Matilda,  the eponymous plucky heroine, played by Mara Wilson, has published a book called Where Am I Now, which is all about growing up.

Both actors have stayed pretty much under the radar since Matilda, although Wilson recently appeared in the TV series’ Broad City and cult cartoon BoJack Horseman.

I really wanna watch the whole film again now. Anyone else? It’s been a while.

Keep doing you, Jim.

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