Heathers
Short description
Heathers is set at Westerburg High School, where a clique of popular girls rules the student body. Three of them share the name Heather, and Veronica Sawyer, who has gained a place in their circle, has grown uncomfortable with how they treat everyone else. She meets Jason Dean, a new student known as J.D., and their shared frustration turns into a plan to remove the people who make school life miserable, staging the deaths to look like suicides. What begins as a way to strike back becomes harder to control as Veronica realizes how far J.D. is prepared to take it.
Michael Lehmann directed the film, his first feature, from a screenplay by Daniel Waters, with Denise Di Novi producing. Winona Ryder plays Veronica and Christian Slater plays J.D.; Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker play the three Heathers. The film places Lehmann at the start of a directing career that continued with Hudson Hawk, Airheads and The Truth About Cats & Dogs, among others.
Made for about 3 million dollars, Heathers took in roughly 1 million at the worldwide box office during its initial release. Its reputation has grown since: on IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 127,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 7.3 out of 10 from a much smaller tally. A critics' rating of 8.1 out of 10 from 59 reviews places it above the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The role of Veronica was written specifically for actress Jennifer Connelly, who ultimately turned it down.
- In Veronica's dream scene, where Jason highlights lines in Heather Duke's book 'Moby Dick' that could explain the reason for her suicide without any suicide note, 'The Catcher in the Rye' was originally supposed to be used. However, due to copyright issues, the producers were unable to obtain the rights to use it.
- Daniel Waters originally wrote the script for Stanley Kubrick (the film's opening scene was written as a tribute to Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket"). However, he failed to make contact with the director, so he offered the script to Michael Lehmann, who agreed to participate in the project with producer Denise Di Novi.
- In the scene where Jason delivers his monologue to Veronica, whom he believes has hanged herself, the legs constantly flickering in the foreground belonged not to Winona Ryder, but to a stunt double.
- Christian Slater stated that he copied Jack Nicholson's mannerisms for the role of Jason Dean. Slater even wrote him a letter asking him to watch the film, but received no response.
- The DVD version included an alternate screenplay rejected by “New World Pictures” as unsuitable for a young audience.
- The film was first released on DVD in 1999, with a new edition released in 2001.
- Veronica's room decor was set up in the school gymnasium, which is glimpsed in the final scene of the climax. Heather Chandler's kitchen, where the pivotal scene takes place when Jason supposedly accidentally gives Veronica a cup of cleaning solution, was also used for Veronica's dream scenes, when Jason brings her to Heather Duke's kitchen. However, it's very difficult to notice the similarity in the shots because these scenes were filmed from different angles and with different color lighting.
- Many actors rejected the offer to star because they found the plot too dark. Among the candidates for the role of Jason was Brad Pitt, who auditioned but was deemed unsuitable by the producers, who felt that Jason would appear too righteous in his portrayal. Christian Slater later signed the contract. The role of Heather McNamara was offered to 17-year-old Heather Graham, but her parents didn't allow her to film. Drew Barrymore and Justin Bateman also auditioned for one of the roles.
- For two actors, the theme of death in the film proved prophetic: Jeremy Applegate (whose character Peter Dawson says he would never commit suicide) shot himself at the age of 34 on May 23, 2000, and Kim Walker (whose character Heather Chandler asks, 'Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?') died at the age of 32 from a brain tumor on March 6, 2001.
- John Adams High School in Santa Monica was used as a filming location for Westerberg High.
- The film was a box office failure, grossing $1.1 million. The failure at the box office is explained in the documentary Swatch Dogs and Diet Cokeheads as being due to poorly executed marketing events caused by the studio's financial problems.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
