Jerry Maguire (1996)
Trivia
Renée Zellweger admitted that the day she was cast in this movie, it had been so long since she had worked that when she went to an ATM, she did not have enough of a balance to make a withdrawal.
Jonathan Lipnicki showed up on the set one day telling everyone that "the human head weighs eight pounds". Writer, producer, and director Cameron Crowe liked it so much he wrote it into the script.
The scene in which Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) and Ray Boyd (Jonathan Lipnicki) are talking in the living room for the first time, was completely ad-libbed. Cameron Crowe wanted to create a genuine "feel" between the two and did so by not having written dialogue for that particular scene.
Two lines from this movie, "Show me the money" and "You had me at hello", are in the AFI's Top 100 movie quotes (at numbers twenty-five and fifty-two, respectively).
Renée Zellweger auditioned three times with Tom Cruise and later received a personal call from Cameron Crowe while she was attending the Sundance Film Festival. Crowe thanked her for her time, and she thanked him for being considered, and just as the call was about to end, Crowe asked, "Well, do you want the job?"
This was Tom Cruise's fifth consecutive $100 million-plus movie, a new record.
Tom Cruise admitted later he did not remember that Bonnie Hunt was in Rain Man (1988). At first he thought she was joking when she said they had worked together before.
Cameron Crowe spent three and a half years writing the script.
At the end of the movie, while Rod Tidwell is being interviewed on television, Jerry Maguire is congratulated by a lady. She is the Winter Olympic champion Katarina Witt. She is seen standing next to Leigh Steinberg, the inspiration for the the title character. Leigh Steinberg introduces Jerry to Troy Aikman in the movie.
The story for this movie was reportedly based on real-life Orange County agent Leigh Steinberg (who makes a cameo in this movie as Troy Aikman's agent, which he was in real life). Steinberg's ex-partner David Dunn tried to lure away many of Steinberg's clients, just as Jay Mohr's Bob Sugar does in this movie.
The parts of Dorothy Boyd and Jerry Maguire were originally written for Winona Ryder and Tom Hanks. Hanks was unable to commit to the project due to his work on That Thing You Do! (1996). Ryder was able to commit, but when screentests were done with Tom Cruise, they "looked like brother and sister" when standing together.
Writer, producer, and director Cameron Crowe was a big fan of The Apartment (1960) and used Shirley MacLaine as a model for the kind of woman he wanted for Dorothy Boyd.
Cameron Crowe hoped that "The Kwan" would become a more popular catchphrase than "Show me the money".
Bonnie Hunt says the toughest part of this movie was "playing a character that doesn't like Tom Cruise."
Regina King was really pregnant during the filming of this movie.
Paula Abdul helped Cuba Gooding Jr. choreograph his touchdown dance.
Because Cameron Crowe took so long writing the screenplay, he felt his original choice to play the title character - Tom Hanks - was too old to play the part by the time this movie was ready to be made. Besides, Hanks had just won back-to-back Oscars and was in the midst of directing That Thing You Do! (1996).
Cameron Crowe's friends told him that Tom Cruise would "never play a loser." Turns out Cruise was dying to portray a character that was on the ropes.
Writer, producer, and director Cameron Crowe's mother appears amongst those attending the divorced women's group. She is the one who says, "I finally got in touch with my anger."
Bonnie Hunt says her character is the "audience's point of view."
When Cuba Gooding Jr. first read for his part for the studio, he did so with Robin Williams, assuming that Williams was going to be playing the title role. However, Tom Cruise had already been hired and Williams was simply substituting as a favor. Gooding went on to co-star with Williams in What Dreams May Come (1998).
Tom Cruise cried when he first read the script.
The camel really was a problem. It chased Tom Cruise, bit Cuba Gooding Jr., and stomped a crew member.
As of 2015, this movie holds the record for lowest gross by a number one movie at the weekend box office, with just over $5.5 million in ticket sales. This feat was achieved during its seventh week of release, bolstered by renewed public interest after it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
As Cameron Crowe worked on this movie, he learned that Cuba Gooding Jr. was considered too small by the standards of most NFL wide receivers, so he wrote a line of dialogue into the script that refers to this.
Renée Zellweger was nervous meeting Tom Cruise. "I went inside and managed not to throw up."
The song playing when Dorothy and Jerry first have sex is "Haitian Fight Song" by Charles Mingus. This is the answer to Jerry's question "What IS this music?"
When Dorothy and Ray drop off Jerry at the airport and look at the family saying goodbye (a mother and child are seeing off the father), the three people shown are the stand-ins for Tom Cruise, Renée Zellweger, and Jonathan Lipnicki who worked on this movie.
Former NFL defensive back Tim MacDonald is credited to have come up with the phrase "Show me the money!" while he was a member of the Arizona Cardinals.
Cuba Gooding Jr. auditioned for this movie with the "Help me help you" scene.
After he had seen Say Anything... (1989), Tom Cruise had called Cameron Crowe to say he loved it, and would be keen to work with him. Crowe was glad to be able to remind him of this when he approached him about taking the title role.
Writer, producer, and director Cameron Crowe offered the Dorothy Boyd role to Janeane Garofalo, if she could lose weight, but after trimming down, she learned that Renée Zellweger had won the part instead in what was to become a career-launching smash hit.
Cameron Crowe really did write out the entire 27-page mission statement.
Cameron Crowe chose the world of sports agents as he felt it was an area that hadn't been really broached on film before. Also, because the industry is solely dedicated to money and he was interested in seeing if such qualities like love and honor could flourish there.
This movie's now iconic line, "You had me at 'hello'", made no sense to Renée Zellweger when she first read the screenplay, initially thinking it was a typo.
Renée Zellweger's famous line "You had me at 'hello'" served as the inspiration behind Kenny Chesney's 1999 single with the similar name "You Had Me From Hello." In 2005, Zellweger married Chesney, only to have it annulled after four months.
According to Tom Cruise, Cameron Crowe was "obsessed" with the goldfish. Crowe says it's Jerry's only friend.
Cameron Crowe wanted his hero, legendary movie director Billy Wilder, to play Dicky Fox. Wilder had agreed to think about it, but on the first day of filming, Wilder refused to play the role. So Crowe took Tom Cruise to Wilder's office to try to convince him, and Wilder still said no. Later, Crowe and Wilder became friends and Crowe wrote a book about Wilder's life.
Cuba Gooding Jr. wasn't shy about stripping down. He even dropped his pants in the audition.
Cameron Crowe has stated that Jerry's memo/mission statement was directly influenced by Jeffrey Katzenberg's tirade after leaving Disney.
Reebok struck up a product placement deal with TriStar Pictures for $1.5 million, which included the incorporation of a commercial for their products into this movie. They were naturally very displeased when this movie was released without the promised commercial, and indeed with Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) at one point saying, "Fuck Reebok!" Legal action was threatened - the commercial was subsequently reinstated for this movie's television airings.
During an appearance on BBC's The Graham Norton Show (2007) in 2012, Cuba Gooding, Jr. talked about how his dad, Cuba Gooding, Sr., didn't hold back on the set. Cuba introduced his dad to Tom Cruise, and his dad gave Cruise a hug, then asked Cruise, "But seriously, are you gay or not?" Cuba later scolded his dad, "You can't keep your lips loose, and they move too fast."
The opening voice-over was recorded in London, England, as Tom Cruise was in the midst of making Eyes Wide Shut (1999) at the time.
Jamie Foxx auditioned for the role of Rod Tidwell.
Cameron Crowe felt that his movie Singles (1992) hadn't done as well as he would've liked and wanted to write a more personal and emotional movie. "And all of a sudden I just looked around and - it was a good thing - many false friends disappeared", he told Paste in 2005. "And the people that sort of stayed behind, who you realize were your true friends and would be your friends for life, were not the people I expected. And that became one of the first ideas that drove Jerry Maguire (1996): what if you lost everything, or lost a lot, and you looked around and all those people that you thought would be there for life are gone. Who's left?"
Cameron Crowe showed Tom Cruise photos of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy to demonstrate the kind of chemistry he was hoping for between him and Renée Zellweger.
Scored by Cameron Crowe's then-wife Nancy Wilson, one of the members of the rock group Heart.
Cuba Gooding Jr. claimed that women come up to him all the time to say "my boyfriend never shoplifts the pootie."
Theatrical movie debut of Jonathan Lipnicki (Ray Boyd).
Artie Lange filmed a small role, but his scene was deleted. According to Lange in his memoir, Tom Cruise yelled at him for not entering his scene quickly enough. Lange further discussed his displeasure at working on this movie, but praised Cameron Crowe for being nice and professional. When his scene was cut, Crowe personally called Lange to inform him. Lange later went on to praise Crowe for taking the time to call, despite his schedule.
Renée Zellweger calls this movie "one of the greatest films of all time." Tom Cruise said, "It was a beautiful experience."
A fan wrote into Cameron Crowe's website "The Uncool" and asked who was the inspiration behind Bob Sugar. Crowe told a story about how he was in Dublin, Ireland in 1993, with Pearl Jam. He and the band were hanging out in a bar when Ronnie Wood walked in. Wood yelled to Crowe, "There's a guy who is stalking me, and he finds me wherever I go. I don't trust him, and he seems nice, but he scares me. He says his name is ... Bob Sugar! Bob Sugar! Can you believe it?" Later on, Crowe realized Wood was probably saying "Brown Sugar", as in the Stones' famous song, not Bob Sugar. But the name stuck. "When it came time to name the characters for Jerry Maguire (1996), Sugar was the first one on the page", Crowe said. "The perfect name for a nemesis. It rolled off your tongue with ease."
Newsday asked Renée Zellweger if it took her several tries to say the now-famous line correctly. She said, "(writer, producer, and director) Cameron (Crowe) had me say it a few different ways. It's so funny, because when I read it, I didn't get it. I thought it was a typo somehow. I kept looking at it. It was the one thing in the script that I was looking at going, 'Is that right? Can that be right? How is that right?' I thought, 'Is there a better way to say that? Am I not getting it?' I just don't know how to do it."
Producer James L. Brooks worked with writer, producer, and director Cameron Crowe on the script for several years. Crowe re-wrote the script over twenty times.
The crew lowered the lamp so it would keep hitting Tom Cruise's head.
This movie's line "Show me the money" was voted as the number eighty of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.
Of the five movies nominated for Best Picture in 1996 - this movie, The English Patient (1996), Fargo (1996), Secrets & Lies (1996), and Shine (1996) - this was the only one from a major studio.
It took a full two days for Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Cruise to film the shower scene.
In the elevator scene when Jerry and Dorothy spot a man signing to his girlfriend and Dorothy translates it as "You complete me", the man appears to be using Pidgin sign (basically American Sign Language signs in English word order) or possibly a form of Manually Coded English. What he literally says is "You make me feel whole."
The role of Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr), Jerry's unethical archenemy was allegedly based on real-life sports agent Drew Rosenhaus, known for similar tactics.
This movie ranked number ten on the American Film Institute's list of the ten greatest movies in the genre "Sports" in June 2008.
Cuba Gooding Jr. won Best Actor in a Supporting Role for this movie from his only Academy Award nomination.
Aimee Mann told DCist about the song "Wise Up": "Well, I wrote it for Jerry Maguire (1996). Writer and director Cameron Crowe really liked the demo, and then he didn't like the finished version, so he didn't put it in the movie. Then after the movie came out, he called me and said, 'I don't know what I was thinking. Your version is awesome. I guess I was just kind of attached to the demo.' So he put it on the soundtrack album. So it's there, and on the DVD, but it wasn't in the original release of the film."
Kelly Preston practiced her punches with legendary boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini.
At one point in this movie, a promotional poster for Janet Jackson's 1993 album, "Janet", is seen hanging on a wall in Tee Pee's (Aries Spears') room. Jackson reportedly read for the part of Marcee Tidwell, but lost it to her Poetic Justice (1993) co-star Regina King.
The song that Frank "Cush" Cushman (Jerry O'Connell) is playing when Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) enters his hotel room on the night of the draft is "Something In The Way" by Nirvana.
At least three women on-set started crying while the "You had me at 'Hello'" scene was being filmed.
The baseball field at the end of this movie was the same field used in Hook (1991).
Edward Burns was the second choice to play Jerry Maguire. He was offered the role while completing The Brothers McMullen (1995), but declined as he wanted to concentrate on his own movies, not to mention being in pre-production of She's the One (1996). Burns suggested his McMullen co-star Connie Britton to read for the part of Dorothy Boyd, but she ultimately lost out to Renée Zellweger.
Tim Allen, Alec Baldwin, Johnny Depp, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, John Travolta, Robin Williams, and Bruce Willis were all considered for the role of Jerry Maguire.
Connie Britton was considered for the role of Dorothy Boyd and was the second choice for the role, being narrowly beaten out by Renée Zellweger at the last minute.
Cuba Gooding Jr. beat out fifty other actors to land the role of Rod Tidwell.
Two Sir Paul McCartney instrumentals are used in this movie, "Momma Miss America" (during the airport montage) and "Singalong Junk" (during Jerry and Dorothy's first kissing scene on the porch), both from the 1970 album "McCartney". Cameron Crowe received McCartney's permission without ever having met him, instead sending a tape of this movie to the latter's office. The two met for the first time five years later in Los Angeles, California, and the result of that meeting was McCartney composing the title song to Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001), which earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.
Cameron Crowe's original goal was to explore the themes of love and marriage in the 1990s. His script wasn't even going to be about sports agents at first.
Jennifer Connelly and Meg Ryan were offered the role of Avery Bishop, but they turned it down.
Eric Stoltz's character in this film is Ethan Valhere. Stoltz also played a character named Valhere in Say Anything... (1989), also written and directed by Cameron Crowe.
Jennifer Lopez turned down the role of Dorothy Boyd at the behest of her agent who felt that the role was not right for her.
Tom Cruise has said that his character was based in part on Sydney Falco from Sweet Smell of Success (1957).
When Tom Cruise won the Golden Globe for his role, it was John Travolta who presented him the award, the husband of Kelly Preston, who starred as Cruise's girlfriend in this movie. They are all Scientologists.
This movie was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the "Best of Film 1996", at position number ten, in their year-end review issue dated December 23, 1996.
Cameron Crowe shadowed sports agent Leigh Steinberg while researching this movie. Steinberg walked the media floor with safety Tim McDonald to get him signed for the San Francisco 49ers.
Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" is heard during a montage after Jerry has left Dorothy; the same song was sung by the entire cast during a scene in "Magnolia" (1999), also starring Tom Cruise.
Patricia Arquette, Cameron Diaz, Bridget Fonda, Nicole Kidman, Courtney Love, Molly Ringwald, and Uma Thurman were considered for the role of Dorothy Boyd.
Former Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers safety Tim McDonald coined the phrase "Show me the money" in a conversation with Cameron Crowe.
Included among the American Film Institute's 2002 list of the top 100 America's Greatest Love Stories movies.
Woody Harrelson was offered the role of Jerry Maguire, and he said to producer James L. Brooks, "Nobody is going to give a shit about an agent."
Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character in the film is named Rod Tidwell, and played for the Arizona Cardinals. Tidwell's name may be inspired by Bill Bidwell, the owner of the team for 45 years, who oversaw the team's move from St. Louis to Arizona. He is thanked in the credits.
Hugh Grant admitted in an interview that the script for the movie was accidentally sent to him instead of Tom Cruise.
In the opening scene, Jerry Maguire mentions a baseball player from Indio, California. Indio is the hometown of Cameron Crowe.
Renée Zellweger kissed Tom Cruise in one of her auditions for this movie.
Shortly before this movie's release, Detroit Lions head coach Wayne Fontes was fired. His brief role was not cut from the final edit of this movie.
Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr. appeared in A Few Good Men (1992).
The coach for the Cardinals was played by Glenn Frey of the Eagles -- the band, not the Philadelphia football team.
Jann Wenner (Scully) is the publisher of Rolling Stone Magazine, for which writer, producer, and director Cameron Crowe once worked.
Tom Hanks auditioned for the role of Joel in Risky Business (1983) and was later considered for the lead role of Jerry Maguire, but lost out the roles to Tom Cruise.
Mira Sorvino and Marisa Tomei auditioned for the part of Dorothy Boyd.
Diane Lane and Alyssa Milano auditioned for the role of Avery Bishop.
When Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger) is packing up for her move to San Diego, California, a RISK game is seen in a box being transported inside the moving truck. In Almost Famous (2000) (also written, produced, and directed by Cameron Crowe), when Anita (Zooey Deschanel), William's (Patrick Fugit's) sister is loading up her boyfriend's car for their move to San Francisco, California, a RISK game is again seen being transported in a box.
The cast includes three Oscar winners: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Regina King, and Renée Zellweger; and one Oscar nominee: Tom Cruise.
Included among the American Film Institute's 2004 list of 400 movies nominated for the top 100 America's Greatest Music in the Movies for the song "Secret Garden."
At the end of this movie, Roy Firestone interviewed Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Rod Tidwell), who also played O.J. Simpson in American Crime Story (2016). In 1992, Roy Firestone interviewed the real O.J. Simpson.
The "Help me help you" line was a line first delivered by Kathy Bates in Misery (1990) when addressing James Caan's character. It's poignant in that fact that Jerry Maguire uses it when he's struggling to understand Rod Tidwell, hence going through some misery himself.
The faxed contract that Rod Tidwell rejects, and then choosing to play out his existing contract was $350,000 (year 1), $450,000 (year 2), $600,000 (year 3). It also stated a signing bonus of $300,000 initial cash bonus prorated over the length of the contract, and incentives of $15,000 for being a Pro Bowl alternate, or $25,000 for being a Pro Bowl original ballot, or $50,000 Pro Bowl original ballot and the team qualifies for the playoffs. Total value of the three year contract offer is $1.79 million.
Parker Posey was originally considered for the role of Dorothy Boyd.
The famous line "you complete me" is actually incorrect in the sign language world. In the elevator, the boyfriend actually signs "You make me feel complete."
Jerry is watching Hawaii Five-O (1968). Cameron Crowe has said he "always wanted to direct Jack Lord."
Tori Spelling auditioned for the role of Avery Bishop, but withdrew due to her commitment with Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990).
Damon Wayans was considered for the role of Rod Tidwell.
In an interview on Jay Mohr's podcast "Mohr Stories" in 2014, Alice in Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell told that director Cameron Crowe cast him in the role of the copymat worker, Jesus of CopyMat, just because he wanted to see Cantrell wearing Dockers and a tie. Cantrell also told that prior to writing the script, Crowe had asked him questions such as "what it's like to be a Jerry?" and what are the nicknames for Jerry, although Cantrell had no idea back then that Crowe was going to direct a film titled Jerry Maguire. Cantrell's small cameo took 4 hours of shooting. Crowe had previously directed Cantrell in the film Singles (1992), and he also co-directed the music video for Alice in Chains' hit single "Would?" in 1992.
Included amongst the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the five hundred movies nominated for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.
Included amongst the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the four hundred movies nominated for the Top 100 Greatest American Movies.
At the 1 hr 41 min mark, the Arizona Cardinals are playing the Philadelphia Eagles in Philadelphia when Glenn Frey walks into the suite. Frey was a member of the Eagles, the band. This is likely not an accident as it would appear to be a movie irony moment.
According to production designer Stephen J. Lineweaver, the high-angle shot of the SMI office is just like an ant farm. Jerry Maguire and Dorothy Boyd are two ants "swatted" off the farm.
The line "You complete me" has been used in both the Marvel and DC Universe. Tony Stark says it to Pepper Potts in Iron Man 2 (2010), and Joker says it to Batman in the Dark Knight (2008).
In the scene where Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) is unsuccessful in mounting a camel, it is supposed to be an ad for the fictitious "Camel Chevrolet", which is a variation on one of many actual car dealerships on Camelback Road in Scottsdale, Arizona. Although the real Camelback Road is named after Camelback Mountain, along which it runs, the ad in this movie was filmed in the foothills of the Superstition Mountains in Apache Junction, Arizona, about thirty miles east of Scottsdale. Several scenes in Raising Arizona (1987) were also shot in this area.
The song "Wise Up" was written for this movie. Tom Cruise sang "Wise Up" in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999). Cruise also received Oscar nominations for both movies.
Jamie Foxx auditioned for the role of Rod Tidwell. He and Tom Cruise starred in Collateral (2004).
Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) is flipping through the radio stations and finally starts jamming out to "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty after his meeting with Frank "Cush" Cushman (Jerry O'Connell). Even though he didn't know it at the time, Jerry was still in a "free fall".
Cameo
Jerry Cantrell: Guitarist/vocalist of Alice in Chains is the Copymat worker at the FedEx store commending Jerry for putting his balls out there.
Rick Reilly: Sports writer holding a camera behind Jerry after Rod gets up after being hurt.
Spoilers
The hit that knocks out Rod Tidwell took twenty-nine takes and three different stuntmen to get right.
