Bruce Bogtrotter star quit acting after film to become a doctor

The actor who played Bruce Bogtrotter in the 1996 version of Matilda ended up having a huge career change after leaving acting.

Jimmy Karz played the young student in the Danny DeVito helmed adaptation of Roald Dahl's famous book, but he's long since been doing something else with his time other than acting.

Karz featured in one of the most iconic scenes in the movie, in which Bruce ends up getting punished for eating some cake which had been left aside for the terrifying headteacher Miss Trunchbull (played by Pam Ferris).

As recompense for eating her snack, Trunchbull brings Bruce on stage in front of the rest of the school and makes him eat a giant slice of cake almost as big as his head.

But when he finishes that slice, she brings out the rest of the gargantuan chocolate cake.

Ordered by the Trunchbull to eat the lot if he ever wants to leave the stage, Bruce slowly manages to chomp his way through the whole cake with some help from Matilda (Mara Wilson), as she leads the rest of the school in cheering him on.

Bruce eventually manages to finish the whole thing without throwing up and lifts the glass plate the cake had been on up like a trophy while everyone cheers, but a furious Trunchbull smashes it down over his head in anger.

Sony

But what was on the cards for Karz following his role in Matilda?

He landed a role in The Wedding Singer a couple of years later, along with playing a part in an episode of ER, but after that he left acting and did something else altogether.

He spent a couple of years working as a production assistant for MTV News and also volunteered as a teacher for struggling communities, where he helped them grow their own food, but he then went and trained for another big career change.

Looking unrecognisable from how he did back in his acting days (understandable, it's been more than 20 years), Karz ended up studying to become a doctor at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

"Through gardening, I learned a little bit about biology and chemistry, enough to realise I wanted to delve more into science," he said back in 2015.

"I went back to school to study biochemistry, which led me to medicine. I liked osteopathic medicine’s focus on helping the whole patient, and I was interested in learning manual techniques to help patients."

Jimmy Karz

As for how they filmed his iconic scene, Matilda director Danny DeVito revealed it took two weeks to complete with Karz and Ferris staying behind after the day's shooting had wrapped up to film it.

DeVito said it was a disgusting scene to shoot, especially as Karz was not allowed to swallow the cake he was eating and had to spit it all out between takes.

As the director he also had to remind crew members not to wipe the actor's mouth between takes, while Karz remembered that he had to wear the same outfit for the scenes and it became encrusted with chocolate.

Unsurprisingly, he wanted nothing to do with chocolate for a few weeks after finally finishing the scene.

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Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker