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Now you can see Scut Farkus in a new, less angry light. Zack Ward, the actor who portrayed the bully, Farkus in the iconic holiday movie, A Christmas Story, is working hard to make sure kids aren't getting bullied in real life.
Ward, now 43, launched an online anti-bullying campaign to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film's release in 1983, according to CBC. The initiative, which started five months ago, raises money to fund anti-bullying and after school programs in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the U.S. and Canada.
He was also bullied when he was younger and felt at the time that his role as Farkus, the nemesis of bespectacled Ralphie, was a way of enacting revenge against his bullies.
"I was the new kid in at least 6 different schools before Junior High," Ward wrote on the fundraising website. "I came from a single parent family. My mom did the best she could while she was working two jobs, but honestly, I was mad…a lot. I got into a lot of fights because I didn't know how to handle all my anger and frustration.
However, he realized what the character was really like after he filmed it. "Just a brutal, nasty little boy is what I was," Ward told CBC.
The Canadian actor now lives in Los Angeles and has since acted in TV shows and in films such as Transformers.
