Miss Congeniality (2000)
Trivia
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Spoilers (1)
Cheryl's (Miss Rhode Island's) answer to the question, "What is your idea of a perfect date?", was actually used as an answer in a real-life beauty pageant.
Sandra Bullock and Benjamin Bratt did all of their own fighting throughout the movie. Stunt doubles were brought in, but only to make sure they were using proper form. At one point, Bullock accidentally injured Bratt when she had to kick him in the calves after he said, "Yes, you have to wear the bathing suit."
The scene with Gracie coming home after the mission in the restaurant was only scripted as "Gracie comes home and starts boxing." The rest (tripping, kicking the bed, microwave oven) was ad-libbed.
Heather Burns had to learn how to twirl a baton for her role, but drew the line at twirling a flaming baton. The crew brought in a professional for the pageant scenes.
Jennifer Gareis was cast as the original Miss New Jersey. Originally, Gracie and Eric confront her at the gym and ask her to relinquish her title. Director Donald Petrie cut this scene because he wanted the story to move along faster. When he decided to cut her part out, he felt bad, and asked her if she would like to come back as Tina.
There was originally supposed to be a storyline which included Gracie's mother. In the first scene, after young Gracie gets in trouble for beating up the two boys, her mother was called in to the school to reprimand her daughter. The story behind her mother was that she was a top FBI agent who was killed in the line of duty, and Gracie became an agent to make her mother proud. This was cut because director Donald Petrie thought the whole story was too much, and that Sandra Bullock was already bringing enough sympathy to the character without having to bring in another storyline.
At the opening premiere of the movie, when Sandra Bullock got out of her car, she actually did trip and fall down just like her character does a few times in the movie. After watching the movie, many attendants thought Bullock actually staged her tripping out of her car.
The movie's theme song for the Miss United States Pageant was written by screenwriter Marc Lawrence and his seven-year-old son, Clyde Lawrence. Marc wrote the lyrics, and Clyde wrote the music.
Sandra Bullock owns the house in Austin, Texas, where some scenes were filmed.
Heather Burns came into the audition with long brown hair. Director Donald Petrie liked her, but thought she looked too much like Sandra Bullock, so he asked that her hair be cut and dyed dark blonde.
Parodies the famous "I'm walking here!" line from Midnight Cowboy (1969), when Victor Melling is teaching Gracie Hart how to "glide" as she walks. They walk across a street, and a taxi almost hits Hart, to which she responds, "I'm gliding here!"
There is a scene from the trailer which is missing in the final version of this movie. Her father asks her if she's a lesbian. She laughs and answers "I wish".
Sandra Bullock purposely didn't take part in the rehearsals for the first dance scene so that it was more genuine when her character couldn't follow the choreography.
During the "gliding" scene, after a car almost hits Sandra Bullock and she and Sir Michael Caine walk off-screen, a crowd of people is visible across the street, behind a barrier. They're on-lookers, gathered to watch the cast and crew members shoot their scene.
The opening scenes take place in a Russian restaurant named Laika. Laika was the first dog in space, and the name means "Barker".
In the control booth at the Miss United States Pageant, a visible sign in the background has a Canadian Maple Leaf in the middle of a red circle with a red slash through it. It's supposed to be an inside joke about how many movies are made in Canada, mostly due to the exchange rate causing lower production costs.
When Gracie is doing the self-defense demonstration during the pageant, the last bit she does using the acronym S.I.N.G. (Solar plexus, In step, Nose, Groin) is an actual self-defense technique, except the G and N are switched when doing it. Which be S.I.G.N
When Gracie arrives at the pageant with Victor, and they are greeted by Kathy Morningside, there is a woman in the background behind Kathy wearing the costume Gracie wears later for her water glass routine during the talent competition at the Alamo.
Marc Lawrence named the main character after his daughter Grace.
Edward Herrmann had a cameo role playing Gracie's father, but his scene was cut.
The first Miss Congeniality was 1941 Miss Oklahoma, a Pawnee American Indian, Mifaunwy ("Miffy") Shunatona.
The news station that shows Gracie is KSAT-12, which is an actual news station in San Antonio, Texas.
Austin filming for the movie occurred in May and June of 2000. Many Austin locations were used in the film, such as the Dog and Duck Pub (where Gracie eats ice cream), and the Cue Lounge (featured in the botched mission, at the beginning of the film) among others. The Starbucks scene, was shot in the middle of downtown Austin, just a few blocks from the Texas State Capital. To make the Austin streets appear more "New York like", brown plastic bags of fake trash were put around the buildings, while fake New York City taxi cabs cruised the streets. Although a stunt driver was used, while filming shots where Gracie tears across the intersection and parks wildly in front of the Starbucks, Sandra Bullock did some of her own stunt driving in several takes, skills she had learned while making Speed (1994). The scenes were filmed on-location at the Starbucks, located at One American Center at 6th Street and Congress Avenue. The whole Starbucks scene was filmed over an entire day, before wrapping around 6 to 7 p.m. The car scene alone, took five to seven takes, and most of the afternoon, in the hot summer sun. To combat the heat, an assistant held an umbrella over Bullock as she got in and out of the car between shots. The interior scene only took a few hours in the late afternoon and early evening to shoot.
Matt Dillon was originally cast as Eric Matthews.
When Gracie Hart and Eric Matthews are requesting Kathy Morningside's permission to plant an Agent (Hart) in the pageant, Kathy Morningside is sitting in front of a poster of a past pageant winner (complete with crown). When Kathy Morningside stands to correct Gracie Hart's comment about the pageant, the shot is set up so that, when she is fully upright, she is directly in front of the poster, completely eclipsing the past pageant winner and appearing as if she is wearing the crown.
The song playing over the closing credits is "Bullets" by Austin-based musician Bob Schneider. Schneider and Sandra Bullock were a couple at the time of this movie's release.
In the talent competition scene at the Alamo, the tune that Gracie plays by rubbing her fingertips around the rims of crystal glasses filled with different levels of water is Lara's Theme, composed by Maurice Jarre and featured in the film Doctor Zhivago (1965).
The only movie, other than The Commitments (1991), to feature a song by the fake Irish soul band, The Commitments, on its soundtrack.
The character "Stan Fields" is a reference to William Shatner's Canadian heritage. "Stanfields" is a very famous Canadian brand of underwear, known for its long johns.
This entire premise of a beautiful government agent undercover in a beauty pageant is a revisited 1970's TV trope from The Bionic Woman: Bionic Beauty (1976), which would later be reprised with Wonder Woman: Beauty on Parade (1976) and, a year later, in Charlie's Angels: Pretty Angels All in a Row (1977).
In the beginning of the movie, when Gracie is ordering at Starbucks, she gives her order, then changes her mind. Gracie actually did change her order, because when she arrives at the F.B.I. building with all the drinks, Eric asks for his frappuccino, which was not in Gracie's original order.
An extra playing a pageant judge looked so much like Jesse Ventura that director Donald Petrie jokingly referred to him by that name during filming. It is not, however, Jesse Ventura in the role.
As Gracie is doing the self-defense demonstration acronym "S.I.N.G.", she actually does intone a major triad (Do - Mi - Sol - Do) while performing the maneuver.
Leeanne Locken from the Real Housewives of Dallas franchise appears in several scenes as a contestant, most notably as the contestant performing balloon art in the talent competition.
In the preliminary talent competition scene in front of the Alamo, the guy playing bass guitar in the backup band is famed Austin director Robert Rodriguez.
Candice Bergen and William Shatner starred as partners and founding members of law firm Crane, Poole & Schmidt in Boston Legal (2004).
In this film the contestants are depicted wearing swimsuits for a segment of the competition. As of 2018, after nearly 100 years of Miss America competitions the event has dropped it's swimsuit competition and will stop rating women on their physical appearance.
In the opening scene, the book that Gracie Hart (Bullock) is reading is "Essentials of Russian Grammar" by Nicholas Maltzoff.
The state contestants featured are from New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Texas, California, Hawaii and Nebraska.
Room 103 plays a big part in this movie. It's Gracie's room number when Cheryl brings her hot chocolate, it's the room where the FBI agents are conducting their surveillance, and it's Victor Melling's room when the team is breaking up. The twin beds match in instances 1 and 3; instance 2 is a single bed and desk/living area.
Spoilers
As Frank Tobin prepares the explosive crown in the prop room, the Queen of the Night aria is being sung on-stage. In Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Magic Flute, the Queen of the Night demands that her daughter kill someone for her.
