20 sweet things to know about ‘Sweet Home Alabama’

“Sweet Household Alabama” turns 20 this yr. And no, we really do not signify the Lynyrd Skynyrd basic, even though it does perform pivotal function in the Reese Witherspoon rom-com that opened in the drop of 2002.

The Oscar-winner and New Orleans indigenous stars as Melanie Carmichael, a young female who has reinvented herself as a New York City socialite and need to return to her hometown to Alabama to get hold of a divorce from her partner just after 7 decades of separation.

The film opened in Sept. 27, 2002. It been given combined critiques from critics, with a 39 per cent ranking on Rotten Tomatoes and consensus studying, “Reese Witherspoon is charming plenty of, but the street to Alabama is properly-traveled.” But it had a $30 million price range and attained $180 million around the globe, solidifying it as a hit and Witherspoon as a bankable film star.

To celebrate 20 years, we listened to the DVD commentary with director Andy Tennant (”Ever Following,” “Hitch”) to study more driving-the-scenes tales and tidbits about the generation, Witherspoon and far more, together with no matter if or not the movie was basically shot in Alabama.

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• Tennant opens the commentary revealing a key generation locale, when young Melanie and Jake perform on a Gulf seashore. “So below we are observing Sweet Property Alabama, when in actuality, the initially scene in this article was in fact shot on Captiva Island in Florida.” But most of the film was shot in Atlanta, Ga., even the scenes established in New York, even though some exterior shots were shot in Manhattan.
• The movie was partially filmed in Alabama. When Witherspoon drives dwelling to the fictional hometown of Pigeon Creek, she passes several properties in an affluent community in “Greenville, Alabama” the place the director explained they filmed in Eufaula. A tiny-city referred to as Crawfordville in Ga doubled as Pigeon Creek’s downtown spot.
• The output was scouting spots in New York Town on Sept. 11, 2001. Tennant mentioned the film was the initially to shoot in the metropolis soon after the terrorist assaults.
• Th director claimed Witherspoon and her co-star Patrick Dempsey “got on like a household on fire.” He reported both equally have been married and both experienced young children or had been expecting at the time, supplying them a large amount to explore on established. “They have been pretty calm all-around each other. Actually great mates.”
• Dempsey’s proposal to Witherspoon inside Tiffany & Co. was shot in the precise shop, with its staff and armed guards on hand, when most of the crew had to hold out exterior due to deficiency of locations for them to hide in the photographs.
• Tennant claimed Witherspoon and co-star Josh Lucas had completely diverse techniques to the operate. “Josh is a quite significant dude. He requires it quite seriously. Not to say Reese doesn’t, but Josh really likes to struggle, plan and consider.” Each time Lucas’ performances bought far too critical, Tennant would phone him “Ralph” referencing actor Ralph Fiennes, “and he’d lighten up.”
• Jake’s bloodhound was played by Baron. “This puppy, I swear to God, would not sit and would not bark. I really do not know any pet dog in the globe that does not bark, but we couldn’t fork out this canine enough to do those people barks.” The barks in the scene “were a miracle of production” and were in all probability the only eight barks the puppy ever did. Later on, when the dog is lying on the sofa, Tennant claimed it could hardly even do that. “Worst actor in the movie.”
• The director stated the mom/daughter angle among Witherspoon and Mary Kay Place was tricky since they did not want her mother to be a villain, nor did they want simplicity in their partnership. They experienced to express that her mom was a single of the reasons she ran away from household.
• Melanie’s father has Accomplice flag pillows on his sofa. “We had a lot of conversations about how significantly we were going to go with the South and the re-enactments, the full factor,” Tennant reported. “It was a little bit contact-and-go there for a even though. After obtaining expended a full good deal of time in the South, there’s just this kind of a tremendous pleasure about their culture and their heritage, their background, that to not have it in the movie felt to us like a little bit of a whitewash. We determined to type of embrace it.”
• When Melanie reveals to her mothers and fathers she’s engaged, her dad tells her mom to fetch the leftover bologna cake, some thing Tennant said his producing partner’s spouse will make. “It’s fairly a delicacy. If you’ve by no means tried it, really don’t. It is bologna with cream cheese involving each layer of bologna. Then you best if off like an angel foods cake, and you place olives on major. It’s totally disgusting.”
• The crew experienced to transport a h2o tower to the town in which they shot the movie, since it didn’t have one particular. “You constantly assume of water towers as almost certainly the most acknowledged icon of little-town America, and this small town didn’t have a person, so we had to provide one particular in.”
• Melanie orders a martini at the roadhouse, and later on you see her eat the olives. Tennant claimed Witherspoon hated olives so much that she essential a spit bucket for anytime they known as slice. He resolved to torture her by shooting about 15 requires to power her to try to eat as lots of olives as feasible, rolling more time and lengthier on each and every choose.
• For the anvil-tossing scene, Tennant explained he and his composing associate uncovered during a study vacation in Alabama. He stated they uncovered the Union army had attempted to damage the South by blowing up anvils, but could not blow them up because they had been solid metal. Tennant stated they read through about it in a tourist guide. The follow was used late in the American Civil War, notably by a regional citizen in Iowa.
• When the band covers Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet House Alabama” throughout the catfish festival, the actors strike the dance flooring. Tennant reported not a single 1 of them could dance, specifically Josh Lucas, even with a few months of rehearsal. “I’ve truly in no way labored with a clumsier bunch.”
• Witherspoon provides an emotional monologue in the area “coon pet dog cemetery,” which Tennant insisted was “a actual put in Alabama.” Tennant stated the set was a way to give the actress a monologue to her lifeless dog but genuinely to the child she misplaced, also planting the seed for Melanie and Jake’s reunion.
• Tennant and his creating associate Rick Parks knew the motion picture wanted a Civil War re-enactment sequence. He reported he attended a true a single in Alabama in the course of analysis, which he known as “unbelievable.” They shot a re-enactment, which you see in the movie. They generally understood the gag exactly where Witherspoon questioned the “dead” troopers for enable discovering her father would get a major chuckle, and it even ended up in the trailer.
• When Dempsey pays a stop by to Witherspoon’s house, her mom suggests, “If I’d known we’d have corporation, I would have place on the pet dog.” Tennant explains the phrase was created during the 1800s. It usually means “to splurge.” It grew to become stylish for people to stroll a specific style of “fancy” pet dog in streets, contacting it “putting on the pet.”
• All through the wedding planning montage, Witherspoon attempts to call Lucas to apologize for major him on. Tennant reported the use of the cellphone ringing around and above was essentially a ripoff from a equivalent effect in Sergio Leone’s “Once On a Time in The united states.”
• Tennant claimed “the raciest tiny moment” in the movie included Witherspoon’s mate Frederick (actor Nathan Lee Graham), who his Black and gay, visiting her childhood household and admiring her mom’s silverware collection, to the slight chagrin of her father. “We just cannot fully ignore the racism that has pervaded the South in the past, so we extra this,” Tennant reported.
• They minimize a rehearsal dinner scene all through which Witherspoon’s father teaches Candice Bergen, the mayor of New York, how to things a can of beer up a chicken’s rear, a specialty at Stella’s Roadhouse. “It was just a couple of other tidbits that ended up really amusing as the North fulfills the South,” Tennant said. It’s a surprise that did not make the last cut.
• At the last next, Witherspoon refuses to sign the divorce papers and calls off her marriage ceremony. Right before they unveiled the film, the studio screened it for emphasis teams. Tennant said quite a few male viewers customers questioned by Patrick Dempsey did not get the girl when “he didn’t something do completely wrong.” Tennant said “Guys were being a lot more upset by it than ladies.”
• They generally needed to conclude the movie with the song “Sweet Household Alabama,” but Tennant claimed they desired a woman singer’s rendition, so they hired Jewel to perform it more than a montage of Melanie and Jake’s married everyday living through the credits.