'A Christmas Story' star Zack Ward said he and costar Yano Anaya were separated from the other child actors during filming

• "A Christmas Story" actor Zack Ward told Insider that he was separated from his peers while filming.
• Ward played neighborhood bully Scut Farkus in the 1983 holiday classic. 
• According to Ward, he was isolated to create tension among the child actors.

The actor who played bully Scut Farkus in the 1983 film "A Christmas Story" revealed in a recent interview with Insider that he and costar Yano Anaya were kept separate from the other child actors while filming.

According to Ward, this was by design, as director Bob Clark wanted to create a sense of tension between Ward and Anaya (who played bullies Scut and Grover Gill, respectively) and the rest of the kids, including Peter Billingsley and Ian Petrella, who played Scut and Grover's frequent victims Ralphie and Randy Parker. 

"Most of the time Yano and I were not hanging out with the other kids. They had different shooting schedules than we did," Ward told Insider. "[Clark] told our parents, 'I just want Yano and Zack to hang out and be friends, and if possible, without being rude to the other kids, don't really hang out with the other kids that much.'"

Per Ward, Clark wanted the other child actors to have "an innate nervousness when these two kids — the two bullies — show up on set like they're not quite sure what's gonna happen." The actor told Insider that he thinks the film succeeded in part because of this tension between the younger cast members. 

But despite their separation, Ward said he and the rest of the children in the cast got along well.

"We liked each other. And then as we grew up, we just always had this touchstone that we could relate to, and then we got to build that touchstone into another movie," Ward said, referring to the recent sequel to "A Christmas Story." 

Titled "A Christmas Story Christmas," the new film was released on HBO Max in November, and follows a now-adult Ralphie (Peter Billingsley, reprising his role from the original) as he travels home to Indiana with his family after the death of his father, "The Old Man." 

Ward, Anaya, Petrella, Scott Schwartz, and R.D. Robb also appear in the sequel, reprising their roles as Scut, Grover, Randy, Flick, and Schwartz, respectively.