MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING
8 THINGS that you didn’t know about the studio filmed an entirely different ending: in the final wedding scene, Jules meets a friend of Michael’s (played by Sex And The City’s John Corbett) who asks her to dance. Fade to black. But test audiences hated th
T wenty years ago, Julia Roberts uttered the immortal words, “I’ve got exactly four days to break up a wedding, steal the bride’s fella, and I haven’t one clue how to do it,” thus declaring war on a primbut-cute Cameron Diaz and plummeting to murky depths to win back Michael, the man she never knew she always wanted. All these years later, My Best Friend’s Wedding still stands up as one of the best romcoms ever. One that revelled in the genre, but also totally subverted it, because – despite all her plotting – the leading lady doesn’t get her man at the end. And the movie is all the better for it.
To mark the iconic film’s 20th anniversary, we take a look at some of its most surprising trivia – while singing along to
Say A Little Prayer at the top of our voices, of course…
1 There was an alternate ending
Despite an hour and a half of love-struck connivance, Jules doesn’t end up with Michael (Dermot Mulroney) – or any man. Instead, she dances the night away with gay best friend George (Rupert Everett), metaphorically flipping the bird at Hollywood clichés as the credits roll. But originally,
2 George was a minor character
Try to imagine the film with less Rupert Everett. Weird, huh? But originally, the thenobscure British actor was hired to play George in a much less major capacity. However, the character – celebrated for his tough-love quips – proved to be such a hit with test audiences that execs beefed up his part. According to writer Ronald Bass, “We were so impressed that we just kept coming up with more scenes for him,” adding that the actor ad-libbed a lot of the dialogue himself. And thank goodness, because without him, we wouldn’t have half the film’s hilarity, the infamous musical interlude (more on that later) and the ever-so-wise words, “It’s amazing, the clarity that comes with psychotic jealousy.”
3 Julia nearly wasn’t Jules
It’s inconceivable to think of any other actress but Julia Roberts scrunching her auburn curls and rocking a ’90s grey pantsuit with such intent. But funnily enough, the part of Jules was originally offered to Sarah Jessica Parker. She had to pass due to scheduling conflicts, leading to Sandra Bullock being considered, before executives settled on Julia. And it’s a good thing, too, – because she was responsible for both Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney’s castings, throwing their relatively unknown names into the ring.
4 The music almost died
One minute, they’re tucking into lunch, the next, they’re singing along full-throttle to Dionne Warwick’s Say A Little
Prayer, led by an impassioned Rupert Everett. But it turns out that this famous scene almost didn’t make it. In fact, it wasn’t even in the original script, but quirky Australian director PJ Horgan – having just won praise for the Abba-tastic camp-fest
Muriel’s Wedding – decided to add the scene at the last minute. Cheers for that, PJ.
5 Cam can sing IRL
It is a pivotal scene in the movie: Kimberly, the bride-to-be, has until now seemed impossibly perfect. But in a move that exposes Jules’ true capacity for villainy, she goads her rival into taking the mic at a karaoke bar. It’s then that Kim reveals her vulnerability, warbling a tone-deaf version of I Just Don’t Know What
To Do With Myself. She’s so bad, she’s amazing, and the audience fall in love with her. But Cameron Diaz insists that in real life, she can in fact carry a tune. In 2014, while promoting her movie Annie (a musical, fyi) she told an interviewer, “I don’t sing as bad as I do in My Best Friend’s
Wedding.” We can relate, Cam – everything we do badly, we totally do deliberately.
6 A TV spin-off could happen
For many years, Ronald Bass spoke about the possibility doing MBFW on the small screen– but it always remained a distant notion. Until recently. In 2015, he announced he had teamed up with ABC to create a spin-off that would follow the lives of Jules and George, who live together in New York. Sadly, little more has been heard since and, with Will & Grace returning in September, we worry this town might not be big enough for two curly red-haired neurotics and their impossibly well-groomed gay best friends.
7 A sequel has been pitched
Like all moneymakers, there was talk of a movie sequel. In 2001, producer Jerry Zucker confirmed that a pitch – entitled My Best
Friend’s Divorce – had been shopped around. Apparently, the story would see Julianne stepping in again, this time as a helpful friend, when Michael and Kim’s marriage hits the skids. However, execs ultimately passed on the idea, with Jerry explaining that “it seems contrived”. Quite right – it seems wholly unnecessary. Sex And
The City 2, anyone?
8 There was a Chinese remake
You know a movie has made it when the Chinese film industry makes its own version. The remake follows a successful fashion editor, who realises she has romantic feelings for her childhood best friend when he invites her to his London wedding. So, like Jules before her, she sets out to claim who’s rightfully hers. Sounds enjoyable enough – we love a London backdrop after all – but, with an approval rating of 30 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, you might want to bypass this version and rewatch the original. For the 113th time.