Coyote Ugly
Short description
Violet Sanford is a twenty-one-year-old with a gift for writing songs, but stage fright keeps her from performing them. She leaves her hometown in New Jersey for New York against the wishes of her protective father, hoping to break into the music business. Instead she takes a job as a bartender at Coyote Ugly, a Manhattan nightspot where a crew of confident young women dance on the bar and tease the crowd, turning the place into one of the city's most talked-about venues. The bar's owner, Lil, runs it strictly. As Violet's new job brings her attention she never expected, her songwriting ambitions slip further away, and she has to decide whether to keep chasing the career she came for.
The film is a comedy drama with music and romance, directed by David McNally from a screenplay by Gina Wendkos and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Chad Oman. It was McNally's first feature; his next was Kangaroo Jack in 2003. Piper Perabo plays Violet, with Maria Bello as Lil, Bridget Moynahan as Rachel, Tyra Banks as Zoe, Izabella Miko as Cammie and John Goodman as Bill. Counting 46 credited cast and 63 credited crew, it was a substantial production, made for 45 million dollars and taking 114 million worldwide, so it more than doubled its budget.
Audience response has been moderate: on IMDb it holds 5.8 out of 10 across 128,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.3 out of 10 from 2,331 votes. A film critics' rating of 4.2 out of 10 from 102 reviews puts professional opinion clearly below both audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- A full sex scene between Piper Perabo and Adam Garcia was cut from the film.
- The film was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's autobiographical article "The Muse of the Coyote Ugly Saloon" for GQ magazine, published in 1997, which recounted her time working at the first Coyote Ugly Saloon dance bar in the East Village.
- Bridget Moynahan (who played Rachel) turned out to be taller than the set designers had anticipated. The bar above the counter had to be raised so she wouldn't get injured during the dance scenes.
- Test screenings revealed that audiences would have preferred more scenes with the character played by John Goodman (who played Bill), so new scenes with him had to be written and then filmed.
- Jessica Simpson was initially considered for the lead role. The actress even auditioned several times, but ultimately left the project because she didn't want to perform in erotic scenes, which the filmmakers insisted on including in the plot. Interestingly, a significant portion of the erotic scenes were cut during editing.
- During filming, Melanie Lynskey (who played Gloria) was repeatedly subjected to mockery regarding her appearance and received a lot of unsolicited advice about losing weight. She had to wear Spanx shapewear and listen to opinions on the matter from the costume designers and makeup artists.
- January Jones auditioned for the role of Violet, which was ultimately played by Piper Perabo. These were only her second film auditions ever, and she later recounted in an interview that she was terrified by an unexpected request during the audition. She had already finished delivering all of her character's lines when producer Jerry Bruckheimer suddenly asked her to dance on the table. Jones was told she would have to perform a pole dance, but there was no pole where the auditions were taking place. Jones turned bright red and then told her agent she wouldn't be participating in the project.
- The first "Coyote Ugly" bar opened on January 27, 1993, in New York, after New York University graduate Liliana Lovell turned down a Wall Street internship in favor of working as a bartender. This bar served as the location for the film's shooting.
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