There's Something About Mary
Short description
Thirteen years after his high-school prom date ended in humiliation, Ted Stroehmann is still unable to forget Mary Jensen. He hires a private detective, Pat Healy, to track her down. Healy finds her in Miami and decides he wants her for himself, so he misleads Ted about what has become of her. Ted goes to Florida anyway, where he discovers that Healy is far from his only rival for Mary's attention.
The comedy was directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly, who wrote the screenplay with Ed Decter. It was the second film Bobby Farrelly directed and the third for Peter Farrelly, following Kingpin and preceding Me, Myself & Irene. Cameron Diaz plays Mary, with Matt Dillon as Healy, Ben Stiller as Ted, Lee Evans as Tucker, Chris Elliott as Dom Woganowski and Lin Shaye as Magda. The production, backed by 20th Century Fox, cost about 23 million dollars and returned roughly 370 million worldwide, a strong multiple of its budget that made it one of the year's biggest commercial successes.
On IMDb it holds 7.1 out of 10 from around 347,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.6 from a much smaller electorate. A critics' rating of 7.2 from 87 reviews places it slightly above the IMDb figure and clearly above the TMDB average, so professional reviewers responded to the film at least as warmly as general audiences did.
What's left behind the scenes
- Friends of the Farrelly brothers participated in the crowd scenes.
- Initially, Peter and Bobby Farrelly wanted to cast Ben Stiller in the lead role, but the studio didn't want that, and the brothers decided to cast Owen Wilson, who was then largely unknown. The studio was simply aghast at this suggestion and stopped objecting to Ben Stiller.
- The scene with the zipper is based on a real event, when the Farrelly brothers' parents had to help one of the guys at a party thrown by one of their sisters.
- After the failure of their 1996 comedy 'Kingpin', the Farrelly brothers decided that their next film would likely be their last as directors, so they decided to go all out. 'There's Something About Mary' became a box office success.
- One critic wrote about Lee Evans' British accent that “it’s probably the worst fake British accent in history.” In reality, Evans is British; on set, he simply emphasized his natural pronunciation.
- The scenes where Ted is dropped onto the stretcher were not in the script. It happened accidentally; filming was stopped to make sure the actor was okay. Once they were assured he was fine, filming continued, and the scene was decided to be kept in the film.
- One day, Cameron Diaz's father appeared on the set, and the Farrelly brothers decided to film him. In the scene where Ben Stiller's character is released from prison, the actress's father played a bearded, long-haired inmate who smirks at the main character.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
