Say Anything…

    


Cast: John Cusack, Ione Skye, John Mahoney, Amy Brooks and Lili Tyler

Crew: Written & Directed By: Cameron Crowe Produced By: Polly Platt Executive Producer: James L. Brooks DP: Laszlo Kovacs Editor: Richard Marks Costume Designer: Jane Ruhm

Theatrical Release Date: April 14, 1989

Tidbits:

  • Early versions of the script used titles such as Common Walls, Golden Girl, Mixed-up Shook-up Girl and Golden Years.
  • Some of the many other titles Cameron considered were Leaving Home, My Only Daughter, Lessons in Love, Meet Lloyd Dobler, The Way She Talks, She’s Beyond You and She’s With Me.
  • Other actors who read for Lloyd included Brad Pitt, Peter Berg, Christian Slater, Todd Field, Josh Brolin and Brandon Lee.
  • Crowe on other actresses considered for Diane: “Jennifer Connelly was the runner-up to Ione Skye. She was brilliant; she had all the languages… Elisabeth Shue did an amazing version of the graduation speech. But there was something haunting about Ione in River’s Edge. I had an instinct that Ione was right.
  • Crowe on casting Jim Court: “We had a hard time finding the dad. Rob Reiner was the first guy we went to. He said, “I’m not acting right now.” Dick Van Dyke really was amazing… We just kept hearing about John Mahoney, and then he came in and was so disarmingly charming and looked like William Holden… A lot of people, even actors coming up for the part, wanted to know, “Why does the father have to be guilty?” The answer was, without the father being guilty it’s Pretty in Pink.
  • Cameron commissioned The Smithereens to write the theme song/boom box moment for the movie. They wrote the wonderful “A Girl Like You”, but thought the lyrics revealed too much of the plot.
  • When Lloyd drives along 45th street in Seattle, he passes the Guild 45th Theatre, which is showing another Cusack film, Tapeheads.
  • Crowe regular Eric Stoltz is featured as Vahlere. He plays a character with the same name in Jerry Maguire.
  • Professional kickboxer, Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson appears as Lloyd’s sparring partner.
  • Singer Chynna Phillips (Wilson Philips) appears briefly as Joe’s girlfriend, Mimi.
  • John Cusack nabbed the Most Promising Actor Award at the 1990 Chicago film critics association awards.
  • Say Anything… was voted the #1 Modern Romance of All Time by the staff of Entertainment Weekly in their February 2002 issue.
  • William Arnold, film critic for the Seattle PI votes Say Anything… and Singles as one of the Top 10 Landmark Events in Seattle Movie History.
  • “I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen.” voted by Premiere Magazine as one of the Top 100 Movie Lines We Can’t Live Without. You can read Cameron’s comments about that line here.