When first released in 1997, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion was not an automatic success with general audiences. Over the years, though, the film steadily earned new adorers, becoming a bona fide cult classic that has a dedicated legion of fans.
This charming and silly film strikes a chord with audiences when they fall in love with the optimistic and eccentric titular duo. With a film as beloved as this one, fans will want to know all the behind-the-scenes facts that are just as fun and interesting as the movie itself.
The Characters Started Out In A Play
Comedy writer and Groundlings alumna Robin Schiff first had the idea for the characters of Romy and Michele when she encountered two uniquely dressed Valley girls at a club on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Schiff added the characters to a play she was writing titled Ladies Room, and her funny and quirky dialogue flourished. The success of the play was in part due to Schiff's Groundlings peer and friend, the talented actress Lisa Kudrow, and her spot-on portrayal of Michele, as recounted by Schiff herself in an interview with Vanity Fair.
The Concept Appealed To The Studio Because Of Wayne's World
After the huge success of Wayne's World, producers at Touchstone Pictures were looking for a female version to be made with the company. Somehow, Touchstone executives got their hands on the script for Ladies Room and liked what they read. Schiff admitted to Vanity Fair that, faced with the idea of adapting Ladies Room, she felt reluctant, believing the transition from stage to screen would not work. At first, Schiff was proven right. The box office for Romy and Michele's High School Reunion was not a blockbuster by any metric upon release. However, the film received sterling reviews and eventually gained a devoted fan base through video rentals and cable TV showings.
A Common "Fact" About The Movie Is Actually A Myth
For years, fans of Romy and Michele's High School Reunion believed that one of the movie's funniest scenes, the one in which Michele recites the scientific formula for glue, was completely improvised by Lisa Kudrow. As Kudrow has a background in science and research, it was a tidbit that was not hard to believe. Yet, in an article with Glamour, director David Mirkin debunked the rumor. The formula was included word for word in the script, and Kudrow convincingly stayed true to the dialogue as written. It is a great testament to Kudrow's acting talents that she was able to seem as if she knew the formula to glue off the top of her head.
Heather Was Envisioned With Janeane Garofalo In Mind
As director David Mirkin had worked with deadpan comic Janeane Garofalo in the underrated HBO series The Larry Sanders Show, he saw her as the perfect fit for the abrasive, potty-mouthed misfit, Heather Mooney. Mirkin told Glamour he was a bit nervous that Garofalo would possibly turn down the part because she had at the time begun receiving starring roles in high-profile films such as The Truth About Cats and Dogs. But those worries were unfounded as Garofalo agreed to the film, and the two had a blast filming.
The Film Was Made More Heartfelt Than Originally Written
According to Buzzfeed, the original script lacked many of the most heartwarming moments the fans love about Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. Mirkin saw that it was important to demonstrate the loving friendship Romy and Michele maintained after their high-school years. A scene that was added to help push this sentiment was the one in which Romy is stood up by prom king Billy Christenson.
In the script, the moment was only referenced by the leads in the present day, and it was not clear how Michele handled the incident. Mirkin wanted to show the pals "save each other," so he added the prom scene as well as Michele dancing with and consoling a heartbroken Romy.
The Reunion Dance Scene Could've Never Happened
The sequence in which Romy, Michele, and Sandy Frink perform an interpretative dance to Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" is often noted as a fan-favorite part of the movie. But the scene was much different in the original script, and the director almost cut it entirely. In an interview with Bustle, director David Mirkin disclosed that the scene originally was meant to be "a disco dance that was an homage to Saturday Night Fever." Mirkin reimagined it as the silly yet emotional scene that ended up in the film. But when the scene was tested with audiences, it was incredibly polarizing. Considering the weirdness of the moment and the negative reactions, Mirkins considered not including the scene. Ultimately, though, Mirkin decided to stick to his guns and keep it, much to fans' pleasure.
Romy Could've Looked Different
Mira Sorvino was not the only actor to be considered for the role of Romy White. According to Buzzfeed, the celebrated Australian actor Toni Collette was originally going to play Romy. Her casting even got so far as Collette and Kudrow going through the material together. Ultimately, however, Collette decided to not proceed with the project. Mirkin surmizes Collette's reluctance was due to the intimidating Valley girl accent Collette would have had to adopt to play Romy. In the end, it all worked out, with Sorvino completely embodying the now iconic character of Romy.
The Reunion Dresses Were Designed To Be Iconic
When Romy and Michele are called out for lying about inventing Post-Its, Romy has a minor meltdown and Michele calms her down. Realizing that they were happy with their lives all along, the two friends change from their all-black business boss ensembles and into the pink and blue dresses that are more characteristic of the true Romy and Michele.
Speaking to Interview magazine, the movie's costume designer, Mona May, noted she chose the particular dresses for the scene because they reflected the real and not fabricated personalities of the protagonists. Michele's feathery pink, Barbie-like dress was meant to show the ditzy, sexy, and fun aspects of the character while suggesting her underlying intelligence.
Will Ferrell Has A Cut Cameo
In the scene in which the three mean girls of the A Group are tearing Romy's Post-Its lie apart, comedy legend Will Ferrell was supposed to make a cameo appearance. Mirkin told Buzzfeed that the cut scene had Ferrell playing a waiter who tries to aid Romy in impressing Christy Masters and her minions. Although Mirkin thinks Ferrell was hilarious in the scene, the reason it got cut was that Sorvino played Romy's humiliation by the three women so realistically and intensely that it upset test audiences. This resulted in Mirkin cutting the entire scene because he didn't want to distress the audience too much.
The Original Ending Was More Ambiguous
As described to Glamour, the original ending only showed Romy and Michele leaving in the helicopter and looking over where they lived, but Mirkin felt that this ending was not complete enough to give closure to the characters. As a result, he factored in Romy and Michele's "savant" fashion talents to have them own a boutique at the end of the film. In the same vein, aggressive Heather was given a new ending by showing her hook up with her fellow teenage loner named only as Cowboy.