The Good Girl (2002)
Trivia
To make Jennifer Aniston look more worn down, director Miguel Arteta made her wear wrist weights for several weeks prior to filming; she also wore them during some of the scenes.
Jennifer Aniston trusted director Miguel Arteta to stop her the moment she did something similar to her Friends (1994) role. She would jokingly say to him, "Please don't let her be Rachel."
According to Jennifer Aniston, from the first draft of the script to the shooting, almost no changes were made.
Outside of Friends (1994), at the time this was Jennifer Aniston's most critically acclaimed performance. Many thought she might even secure an Oscar nomination but she missed out.
Jake Gyllenhaal admitted that in the film's sex scenes, his main job was to lie over Jennifer Aniston and keep her breasts covered. He said she also put a pillow between them so there wouldn't be any touching of their lower areas.
Jennifer Aniston worked with a dialogue coach for two months to perfect her Texan accent.
Holden is named after a J.D. Salinger character (from "The Catcher in the Rye"). Zooey Deschanel, who plays Cheryl in this film, was herself named after a Salinger character.
Reese Witherspoon and Catherine Keener were considered for the role of Justine.
For the first three weeks of filming, Jennifer Aniston was concurrently working on Friends (1994).
At one point, Mike White was attached to direct the movie with Laura Dern starring.
Mike White's screenplay was roughly inspired by "Madame Bovary".
The end credits give special thanks to actor Danny DeVito and to director Spike Jonze.
One of three movies that featured Jake Gyllenhaal released over a period of three months, the others being Lovely & Amazing (2001) and Moonlight Mile (2002).
Another collaboration between director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White following Chuck & Buck (2000). Both scripts were completed around the same time but White withheld the screenplay for The Good Girl because he wanted to direct it himself. However, the filming of Chuck & Buck was so pleasurable for White under Arteta's direction that he relented and handed the script over to him.
Cameo
Mike White: the film's author plays Corny, the dorky surveillance employee at the supermarket.
Spoilers
Holden's last name, "Worther," like his first name, is a literary allusion. It comes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther," which attracted an audience of alienated young people in the 19th century the way "The Catcher in the Rye" did in the 20th century. The plot of "Young Werther," an intensely romantic young man with aspirations to be a writer who falls in love with an older married woman, is rejected by her and ultimately commits suicide, parallels the plot of The Good Girl (2002).
Since depression and suicide play a significant role in the story of "The Good Girl" it is noteworthy to mention that the soundtrack features singer-songwriter Nick Drake who suffered from major depression, and this was often reflected in his lyrics. Nick Drake committed suicide at the age of 26. All three of his albums appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
