No one expected Bring It On to win its opening weekend. The Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union teen cheerleading comedy was facing off against a $60 million Wesley Snipes action film. But on the weekend of August 25, 2000 the $10 million pic about the Rancho Carne Toros and the East Compton Clovers skyrocketed to No. 1 and stayed there for two weeks.
Bring It On has been defying expectations since the beginning, when it was still called Cheer Fever and getting first-time screenwriter Jessica Bendinger nothing but nos from the studios (27 in total).
Not only was it a hit of its time (that spawned five direct-to-video sequels) but 20 years later is just as relevant as ever for its prescient themes and young fans from Ariana Grande to Jerry Harris of the Netflix phenomenon Cheer.”
The Associated Press spoke to Bendinger and director Peyton Reed about making Bring It On. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
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AP: What was the story behind changing the title from Cheer Fever to Bring It On?
REED: There was a studio attitude that the word cheer was going to narrow the audience too much and that people might just think its a cheerleading movie. And Im thinking, Well it IS a cheerleading movie. But they came up with lists to encapsulate the attitude of the movie.
BENDINGER: I think it was a big wrestling call out back in the day, like bring it on. I thought it was kind of funny.
REED: I liked the confrontational aspect of it. But there is that scene with Gabrielle when she says to bring it in the final. I remember having to wrap my overly logical head around Wait, she says bring it she doesnt say bring it on.
AP: Did the $10 million budget feel like a lot, or enough?
REED: It never seems like a lot but it also felt like, thats cool, this is going to be a scrappy movie. We were all so enthusiastic about making it. We knew in relation to other movies at Universal that we were small potatoes but that gave us a certain amount of freedom. We were off their radar a little bit.
BENDINGER: I remember going down to Oceanside, California, to film the nationals and thinking wow, this is actually pretty impressive.
REED: We made Oceanside look like Florida except the ocean was on the wrong side.
AP: Did the script change much from when you started pitching in 1996?
BENDINGER: Ive been revisiting my youthful indiscretions in writing form because Im publishing the screenplay for the first time with some never-before-seen scenes. I had like six endings. But Peyton saw the David in the marble.
REED: That first draft would have been a sprawling, three-hour cheerleading epic.
AP: Is anything you wish you could change?
BENDINGER: We did try to put nuance in it that whole thing with Jan and Courtney and the digits that slip occasionally. It was a very ambitious way to talk about slut-shaming, in my mind. When I see that now, its awkward for me and uncomfortable. In a teen comedy, its just not reading that way even if it was our intention.
REED: I think any time you try to push boundaries, there are things that age well and things that dont.
AP: Why do you think Bring It On gets referred to as a cult classic when it made so much money ($90.5 million) at the time?
REED: Jessica has theory that made sense to me. And it was basically like a high percentage of guys who talk to us about the movie come up and say, Listen, I know it wasnt targeted at me but…. They qualify their positive feelings. Maybe its a cult movie because guys are embarrassed to admit they like it.
BENDINGER: And we made it for everybody! I think that theres some internalized surprise or shame for guys like they cant believe they like this movie that so clearly seems like it made for young women. But, and this is a little saltier, I feel like saying oh really, I was writing young teenage girls in cheerleading outfits and you really thought that wouldnt be for you?
AP: Did you read reviews when they came out?
REED: I have to admit, I was pretty obsessive.
BENDINGER: I remember refreshing to see if The New York Times online had posted. The A.O. Scott review came up at some point and I burst into tears that he got it.
AP: Roger Ebert basically used his to rail against the MPAA and the PG-13 teen comedy.
BENDINGER: Theres a story there. Im from Chicago and Roger Ebert was a neighbor of my dads and he would see him at the grocery store. Apparently after that review, my dad confronted Roger in the Carnival Grocery like, Hey, Im Jessicas dad and I really dont like what you wrote. People like to quote the Citizen Kane line but my dad was (mad).
REED: The Citizen Kane line came later! Ebert wrote the review and reassessed it. Maybe your dad got through to him.
AP: Is there anything youre particularly proud of?
REED: The whole notion of cultural appropriation. If you sort of look at it through todays lens, Kirstens character is really confronting her own white privilege. Its one of the great strengths of Jessicas script.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr
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