The Young Actors From ‘The Sandlot’ Once ‘Snuck In’ to an R-Rated Screening of ‘Basic Instinct’ While Filming

One of the cast members of The Sandlot  is recounting the off-screen antics of the young actors involved in the film — including sneaking in to R-rated movies.

In a recent interview with PEOPLE, Chauncey Leopardi (who portrayed Michael “Squints” Palledorous in the 1993 film) notes that one such fun memory came when actor Tom Guiry’s older brother snuck the other young actors into a showing of the R-rated film Basic Instinct.

The 1992 erotic thriller was a controversial-yet-memorable hit — in part due to Sharon Stone’s sexy turn as Catherine Tramell. The film was initially given an NC-17 rating by the Motion Picture Association of America, but was ultimately edited to achieve a R-rating for its theatrical release. 

“There was a movie theater across the street of us and we bought tickets for something else and snuck in,” Leopardi, now 44 and a father of five, told PEOPLE.

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Elsewhere in his conversation with PEOPLE, Leopardi noted that the young actors treated shooting the film similarly to a summer camp.

“We were staying in a condo complex — all the kids and all our families,” Leopardi said. “We had a pool there, we were playing video games. On set there was baseball and a treehouse that was built for the film and it was all incredible. We were working long hours in the heat but at the same time, we had this amazing summer camp experience. It was very fun and pleasurable and it translated to the screen to live forever as this one moment.”

He and his fellow castmates, he added, are still close.

“We have multiple group chats. They’re funny, they’ll hit you at random times,” Leopardi says. “Also, we’re together a lot — Sandlot is an interesting project because it hits so many things in the culture — we do big national sports signing and we do pop stuff and comic con type things.”

One of the film’s other cast members — Patrick Renna told PEOPLE in an earlier interview that he and the other actors would film “for about eight to 10 hours a day,” adding: “After that, we had 14 hours to fill. We weren’t just sleeping during that time — we were raising hell in the building, swimming in the pool, running around, watching movies, shopping together, and playing video games.”

Renna, 45, added: “We had this treehouse. There were old Playboy magazines in it because, you know, it was the ’90s, and that’s just what we found,” he adds. “One of us disappeared, and they found him looking at the Playboy in the treehouse. We were 13-year-old boys — so they had to be careful about what they left around.”