Noted Vegas Actor Trash-Talks Tropicana

Posted on: October 10, 2024, 05:55h. 

Last updated on: October 10, 2024, 06:07h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

After Las Vegas, and the world, bid a tearful adieu to the Tropicana on Wednesday morning, not all the memories of the imploded icon shared by Vegas notables have been positive.

Audrey, Ellen, Clark and Rusty Griswold check into the Mirage in the classic 1997 comedy, “Vegas Vacation.” (Image: Warner Bros. Studios)

“I lived at the Tropicana Hotel for four months while we shot Vegas Vacation,” Ethan Embry posted to X/Twitter on Oct. 9. “It was an unlivable environment in 1996.

“Good riddance.”

And just who is Ethan Embry? We asked that, too, after his tweet was first reported on by the Las Vegas Review-Journal Thursday.

Rusty Griswold goes car shopping at O’Shea’s. (Image: Warner Bros. Studios)

It turns out, Embry played Rusty Griswold, the son of Chevy Chase’s character, Clark, in “Vegas Vacation,” back when he was 18.

Embry’s memorable subplot saw his character win multiple cars as jackpots at the former O’Shea’s casino while gambling underage. (He used a fake ID he procured from a Frank Sinatra impersonator emblazoned with the alias “Nick Pappagiorgio.”)

Embry’s Trop dis drew over a million reviews and 332 comments — many of which concurred with Embry’s review but a few of which did not appreciate reading it the morning after the Tropicana was transformed into piles of rubble.

“Wow really?” commented X user @AlexisStevens02. “You must say this? Tropicana was a historical hotel, please shush. Really now …  Tacky Ethan. Bye.”

“That place employed thousands of good people over the years,” added @Senteney. “Sorry it didn’t live up to your haughty expectations.”

When @cesarmiles202 posted a photo of Embry enjoying a jacuzzi dip with a bevvy of beautiful, bikini-clad women, pointing out that he seemed “quite happy there,” Embry fired back: “Those are the Tropicana Girls and it was at the Mirage. Even the Tropicana Girls don’t go to the Tropicana.”

Ethan Embry poses with Chevy Chase in a photograph he posted to Instagram in July 2015. The caption read: “Saw dad last night.” (Image: Instagram/@ethanembry)

Cut to the Chase

The Tropicana wasn’t the only institution Embry freely trashed in the thread.

“Vegas Vacation’s” lead actor, who has developed quite a rep over the decades for unbearable on-set behavior, also caught a piece of his wrath.

When @SkipTrollington wondered if the film took four whole months to film because “Chevy Chase is such an unbelievable asshole,” Embry responded: “I’m sure that didn’t speed things up.”

To @luciandavid33, he said that Chase was never an a-hole to him in particular, but … “Did I see ugly? Yes.”