Trivia for
The Princess Diaries (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• This movie was filmed on Stage 2 in Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, the same stage in which the film Mary Poppins (1964) was shot. The stage has since been named in honor of Julie Andrews, who starred in both films.
  
  
• The on-screen relationship between Queen Clarisse Renaldi (Julie Andrews) and Joseph (Hector Elizondo) was not scripted. The dance scene and the underlying affection was added by the two actors. According to Hector Elizondo, "We felt that a romance after 50 was important to tell and it can be sensual and sexy while keeping your clothes on."
  
  
• The autograph seekers, Lilly and Charlotte, are director Garry Marshall's twin granddaughters. Also, one of the buildings in the school was the "Lilly and Charlotte Grove Building."
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Garry Marshall] guest at Genovia's annual independence ball.
  
  
• Cameo: ['Penny Marshall' ] guest at Genovia's annual independence ball.
  
  
• The scene where Mia trips and falls in the bleachers was real. Anne Hathaway had tripped while doing the scene, and director Garry Marshall thought it was funny, he inserted it in the final cut.
  
  
• The Latin in the Genovia crest is best translated as "The whole body works".
  
  
• Patrick Richwood, who played elevator operator Dennis in Pretty Woman (1990), appears as Mia's next door neighbor and Allan Kent appears in both Pretty Woman (1990) and The Princess Diaries (2001) as a waiter who says the same line: "It happens all the time."
  
  
• Hector Elizondo played basketball several hours solo in the rain for the few seconds shown in the movie.
  
  
• Michael's band, Fly Paper, is singing the song "Blueside" by Robert Schwartzman's real band, Rooney. Though in Rooney, Schwartzman plays guitar and vocals, not keyboard and vocals.
  
  
• While Julie Andrews was making Mary Poppins (1964), she rented the house that Garry Marshall lived in while filming this movie.
  
  
• Mia's dress from the dinner party (the purple one) is a copy of the dress that Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden wore to the Nobel Prize gala in 1997.
  
  
• Garry Marshall confessed that nearly all the film crew had a go on the fireman's pole.
  
  
• Anne Hathaway took rock climbing lessons for this movie.
  
  
• The building that "portrays" Grove High School in the film is located at 2601 Lyon Street at Green, in San Francisco, California.
  
  
• Mia and her mom live in the former Chemical Engine Company 43 at 724 Brazil Avenue, in San Francisco, California. The two-story frame Mission Revival-style firehouse was built (circa 1911) to provide fire protection to the Excelsior Homestead District. It was one of the first to leave behind the horse-drawn days for the newly fashioned motorized apparatus shipped from the east. The retired firehouse was sold at auction in 1976. The private residence still retains a large hose drying tower in back.
  
  
• When Michael comes with Mia's car, Mia is watching one of the deleted scenes from the movie.
  
  
• It was Anne Hathaway's idea to have the pore strip on her nose.
  
  
• The egg chef in the kitchen during the rain sequence towards the end of the movie is young actor/producer Anthony Begonia.
  
  
• The trolley that Mia rolls back into with her mustang is not a trolley or cable car but a tour bus. The tires of the bus can be seen in the shot.
  
  
• While filming the final celebratory dance scene, the Madonna song "Like A Prayer" was played on a boom-box to elicit natural dancing from the actors on set (to be then dubbed over by the song that appears in the film's final cut). The assistant director had to do multiple takes of this scene because the actors kept mouthing the words to "Like A Prayer" while on camera.
  
  
• During shooting of tea scene in the garden and the greenhouse scene, airplanes were flying over the area and interfered with the sound. When the scenes were finished, the director gave Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews awards for "best acting in airplane interference".
  
  
• During auditions, Anne Hathaway fell out of her chair, and was immediately given the part as clumsy Mia Thermopolis.
  
  
• In the book, Mia's father is not dead. Rather he has testicular cancer. In order to avoid what Disney thought was a too adult topic, he was just written as dead in the movie. In the book, when Mia shoves the ice cream on Lana, her father sticks up for her with her mother. Also in the book, the plot of Mia's mother Helen dating her math teacher is a much bigger deal.
  
  
• Anne Hathaway's movie debut.
  
  
• Mia's cat, Fat Louie, was Anne Hathaway's pet in real life.
  
  
• There were four different cats used to play the role of Fat Louie. One who allowed people to carry it, one who could sit still, another who would jump and the last one who sits on the envelope at the end of the movie.
  
  
• Cinderella reference: Mia is late (for meeting with her grandmother) and is running across the lawn when she loses a shoe.
  
  
• The piece of writing Mia recites when practicing speeches is part of one of Juliet's soliloquy's from Romeo and Juliet.
  
  
• Several actors and actresses have worked on one of or both of the Princess Diaries movies and Pretty Woman (in roles both in front of and behind the cameras): Hector Elizondo, Judith Baldwin, Julie Paris, Harvey Keenan, Scott Marshall*, Kathleen Marshall*, Don Feldstein, Patrick Richwood, Marvin Braverman, Jeff Michalski, Steve Restivo, Larry Miller, Allan Kent, Tracy Reiner*, Mychael Bates, and Charles Minsky. *Note the last name of these people.
  
  
• Jessica Biel reportedly turned down the role of Mia, after Juliette Lewis, the original choice to play the part, departed from the project.
  
  
• Juliette Lewis was originally offered the role of Mia but turned the role down. Christina Applegate, Amanda Peet, Cameron Diaz, Alyssa Milano, Josie Davis, Kate Beckinsale, Tiffani Thiessen, Eva Mendes, Drew Barrymore, Reese Witherspoon, Alicia Silverstone, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Brittany Murphy, Katie Holmes, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Claire Danes, Kate Hudson, Christina Ricci, Jessica Alba and Kirsten Dunst were all offered the role of Mia after Lewis departed, but turned it down.
  
  
• Garry Marshall's granddaughters watched the tapes of actresses auditioning for the role of Mia - they confided in their grandfather he should hire Anne Hathaway because she had good princess hair.
  
  
• Garry Marshall wrote the retainer scene after learning Anne Hathaway had worn a retainer when she was younger but found it difficult to speak while wearing it. Hathaway brought in her old retainer for the scene.
  
  
• Julie Andrews' jewelry and tiara for the final part of the movie was half a million dollars worth of real diamonds on loan from Harry Winston. Anne Hathaway's tiara was made specifically for her, and was considerably cheaper - instead of diamonds, her tiara was comprised of cubic zirconia.
  
  
• Anne Hathaway had to wear a thick clip-in hair-piece to give her hair a much bushier appearance; the hair-piece became known as "the beast" by cast and crew. Her pre-makeover eyebrows took an hour to apply as each tiny hair was individually glued on.
  
  

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