Warning: Nostalgia overload ahead.
Nineties romantic comedies taught us a lot of life lessons. For example, a dress and some contacts will instantly transform any girl from the “ugly duckling” to a smokin’ hot popular cheerleader, and Prada backpacks need to be a staple item in the wardrobe of any high school girl.
Whether you love them, hate them, or binge-watch them with a cheap bottle of red and a family block of chocolate — rom-coms are great.
But the best part of these movies isn’t the classic one-liners:
Or the horrible stereotypes:
It’s because they’re filled with incredible trivia that you didn’t even know about.
Here are 15 things you never knew about your favourite 90s rom-coms. You’re welcome.
1. One of the most famous scenes in You’ve Got Mail was completely improvised.
There’s a scene in You’ve Got Mail, the 1998 classic Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan romance about pen pals (basically the pre-Tinder), that was ad-lipped by Hanks.
When his character closes the door on the balloons and says, ‘Good thing it wasn’t the fish’ it was a mistake. The director thought it was hilarious and kept it in.
2. There’s a plaque in New York celebrating the famous orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally.
The scene where Meg Ryan‘s character fakes an orgasm was filmed in Katz Delicatessan in New York City. To this day, there’s a sign on the table where the orgasm was filmed that says “When Harry Met Sally… Hope you have what she had!”
Four for you, Katz Delicatessen. You go, Katz Delicatessen.
3. Julia Stiles wasn’t supposed to cry at the end of her 10 Things I Hate About You poem.
That was completely unscripted. The final version that ended up in the film took only one take to get right. Julia’s tears were felt in the moment and the director decided to keep them in.
Thank God he did.
4. Allison Janney’s famous scene in 10 Things I Hate About You was improvised.
Allison Janney, who plays Ms Perky in the 1999 film, is remembered in the movie for the cringe-worthy hilarious line, “Kat. Meow.” That hilarity was not planned.
“That was me,” Janney said.”I do that on some movies when I feel like the atmosphere is right and [director] Gil Junger was open to it and just let me do whatever I wanted to do. I was really thrilled about that one.”
5. Alicia Silverstone couldn’t pronounce the word ‘Haitians’ in Clueless.
In the debate scene in 1995’s Clueless, Alicia Silverstone’s character actually couldn’t pronounce the word ‘Haitians’, but the director told everyone not to correct her because it was so hilarious.
Top Comments
"Haitians" not "Haitains" (Point Number 5)
Ad-libbed, not ad-lipped (Point Number 1).