Who better to fight bullying than the holiday season's most-feared bully?
The actor who played Ralphie's red-headed tormentor Scut Farkus in "A Christmas Story" 30 years ago is launching an anti-bullying campaign, in the hopes of using his best-known role for good, he told the CBC.
Zack Ward said he is now fighting to help work against bullies like the one he memorably played, taking his inspiration in part from his character — "a brutal, nasty little boy," as he describes it — in the movie.
"I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use Scut Farkus as a lightning rod for the conversation and make it funny," he said.
To help end bullying, he has begun an online fundraising campaign to prevent bullying, plus after-school programs in underserved schools throughout North America.
"I think both the bully and the bully's victim have an issue and it can be addressed, and we can help them get the support they need, see that they have other options and believe in themselves," Ward told the CBC. Those children, he suggested, might be unhappy themselves and not feel loved or supported.
