FALLOUT GIRL
With the cast in place, the filmmakers
could focus on the actual story. As the
film progresses, the characters begin to
explore their powers on screen, begin-
ning with Rochelle’s revenge on Laura
Lizzie (Christine Taylor), the school’s
racist bully, whose hair mysteriously
begins to fall out.
TRUEIn the original script, before
they decided to go with someone
nonwhite, my character was bulimic.
And then once they cut that out I was
like, “My issue is that I’mblack?No,
my issue is not I’m black; the world’s
issue is that I’m black.”
FLEMINGI witnessed a lot of bigotry in
high school, so I made Rochelle black.
CHRISTINE TAYLOR(Laura Lizzie)
Every time I would say the line
“Because I don’t like negroids,” I would
stop and apologize [to Rachel]. Lau-
ra’s just so mean, which is why they
needed to make her suffer. I remember
being in the hair chair for hours. They
put my hair into a bald cap and would
pack on swatches of the hair that was
supposed to be falling out.SNAKES ON A STAIR
As the girls’ powers grew, so did weird
on-set occurrences, whether it wasinexplicable weather on the beach or an
all-too-realistic encounter with snakes
during the final showdown between
Nancy and Sarah.
FLEMINGWe picked the beach loca-
tion with a park ranger where, even
during a storm, we would not be any-
where near waves. But anytime one of
them started the incantation it really
did seem that the waves would get
higher, and there was one point
where this rogue wave came in and
wiped the set out.
TUNNEYThe snakes were real. The
rats were real and the maggots were
real. I was in shock. They threw a rat
on my head and it smelled. I was
completely freaked out.
FLEMINGSupposedly that was the
record number of any kind of animal
in one scene. The animal guy got
10,000 snakes [for] that shot in the
staircase. It was a weird night.THE SONG REMAINS
THE SAME
There was one scene that would garner
extra attention when The WB premieredDIXONBut [Neve] was by far the big-
gest name [because of her showParty
of Five]. We tested Alicia Silverstone,
Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie,
but Neve came in and she was really,
really good.
TUNNEY When they asked me to play
the lead instead of Bonnie, I was like,
“That is the most boring part. That’s
the girl you want to stuff in a locker
and tell her to shut the f--- up
because she’s no fun.” My agents
called me and said, “You can’t say
no. It’s a lead in a studio movie.” I
was afraid. I’d never been the lead in
anything. I didn’t feel like I was good
enough.
FLEMING When we finally found four,
I said, “Let’s do this thing where
the girls walk toward the camera in
their witchy attire,” and we did it in
slow motion and we put Portishead
over it so that you got the feel of
the movie.
WICK What got the movie finally
greenlit was when we shot the four
girls walking. That image made the
studio say, “Okay, I get this.”
TUNNEY That is the oddest thing for
something that eventually became a
feminist film. It was, like, shaking
t--s and Portishead.
Campbell,
Balk, True,
and Tunney
True and
Andrew
FlemingTHE CRAFT: COLUMBIA/KOBAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; TRUE AND FLEMING: EVERETT COLLECTION