14 Enjoyable Info About ‘Now and Then’

In October 1995, the female-centric coming-of-age movie Now and Then hit theaters. It tells the story of 4 buddies who grew up in the identical Indiana neighborhood and reunite there as adults to help Chrissy (Rita Wilson) as she prepares to present beginning. Locally, Chrissy is supported by buddy and gynecologist Roberta (Rosie O’Donnell). Returning to city for the event are film star Teeny (Melanie Griffith) and science fiction author Samantha (Demi Moore). As the buddies reconnect, the movie flashes again to a transformative summer time they spent collectively in 1970 (through which their childhood variations are portrayed by Ashleigh Aston Moore, Christina Ricci, Thora Birch, and Gaby Hoffmann, respectively). The younger ladies take part in prank wars, embark on romances, uncover native mysteries, and grapple with household dynamics.

Thirty years after its launch, the heartfelt movie stays a resonant favourite to many who skilled the ups and downs of being 12 years previous, notably as a woman. The catchy soundtrack doesn’t harm both. In honor of its anniversary, listed below are 14 info chances are you’ll not learn about Now and Then.

1. The story was based on screenwriter I. Marlene King’s life.
2. The original title was The Gaslight Addition.
3. Demi Moore produced the film.
4. Georgia stood in for Indiana.
5. Some of the cast knew each other previously, and some became lifelong friends.
6. Christina Ricci advocated for Devon Sawa to get the part of Scott Wormer.
7. Leonardo DiCaprio almost played the Vietnam veteran part that went to Brendan Fraser.
8. Roberta was originally gay.
9. The tree holding the treehouse was dead.
10. The photo of Roberta’s mom was actually one of Now and Then’s producers.
11. There are some pop culture anachronisms.
12. Gaby Hoffman didn’t like her 1970s wardrobe.
13. It was poorly reviewed, but made money and became a cult classic.
14. There was almost a TV adaptation.

The story was based mostly on screenwriter I. Marlene King’s life.

The movie’s screenwriter, I. Marlene King, actually grew up in Indiana (although she lived in Winchester, which grew to become Shelby for the movie). In the early days of her writing profession, King kept hearing the age-old recommendation to “write what you know”—in order that’s precisely what she did. She wrote a screenplay that echoed her real-world expertise of what it was prefer to undergo her mother and father’ divorce and roam round on bikes together with her greatest buddies. Even the cemetery séances and central thriller of the movie have been autobiographical. In Now and Then, the ladies uncover the headstone of Johnny, an area boy who died younger. That headstone ultimately goes lacking, main them to attempt to dig up the story behind his demise. According to King, her buddies additionally performed a séance, realized a headstone had gone lacking, and tried to resolve the thriller.

Another scene based mostly in fact: the kiss between Roberta and Scott Wormer (Devon Sawa). King has mentioned, “That was just like my first kiss when he kisses Roberta. That was like right out of my life’s story and was so true to life.” 

The unique title was The Gaslight Addition.

The younger ladies all dwell in the identical cul-de-sac inside an idyllic neighborhood the place each home seems alike. It’s known as the Gaslight Addition, which was the actual identify of the neighborhood the place King grew up. It was additionally the movie’s unique title; proper earlier than launch, distributor New Line Cinema modified the identify to Now and Then for advertising functions. (Sadly, the actual Gaslight Addition suffered heavy twister harm in March 2024, and King’s childhood residence was destroyed. King returned to the world the next yr to assist with catastrophe aid fundraising.) 

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Demi Moore produced the movie.

Already an A-list film star—with movies like St. Elmo’s Fire, A Few Good Men, and Indecent Proposal on her resumé—Demi Moore branched out to producing in 1994 when she co-created Moving Pictures. The firm would go on to supply G.I. Jane and the Austin Powers trilogy, however Now and Then was one among their first initiatives.

In addition to the movie having ladies in producing, writing, and directing roles (Lesli Linka Glatter), there was an emphasis on offering alternatives for ladies throughout the complete manufacturing. In an on-set interview, Moore noted, “I can tell you the biggest reward so far: the fact that New Line greenlit this picture … In our entire crew, this is the most women I have ever seen on a film in terms of grips, and gaffers, and camera department. It’s really exciting.”

Moore additionally gave one among her daughters her performing debut in Now and Then. Rumer Willis performed Samantha’s youthful sister, Angela. Willis was simply 6 years previous on the time. In a 2019 interview, she recalled, “I remember being on that set and it was, like, heaven for me. All I wanted to do was talk to the older girls … It was so fun.” 

Georgia stood in for Indiana.

Though Now and Then takes place in Indiana, the movie was primarily shot in Georgia. On their lengthy bike journey, the ladies stop at a mom-and-pop store to seize sodas, the place Chrissy reveals she hasn’t French kissed as a result of she doesn’t need to get pregnant. The scene was filmed at an actual retailer known as Pop & Gee at Smitty’s Country Store, situated in Guyton, Georgia. As of 2015, Pop & Gee had Now and Then posters hanging inside to honor its cameo within the movie. Statesboro, Georgia, stood in for downtown Shelby. The exterior of the Shelby Library is Statesboro’s Averitt Center for the Arts. And a few blocks from there, you’ll discover the placement of the storm drain the place Samantha falls in and in the end will get saved by not-so-scary-after all “Crazy Pete.” It’s right on the corner of Main Street and Walnut Street.

Some of the solid knew one another beforehand, and a few grew to become lifelong buddies.

The solid had some filmography overlap earlier than sharing the display screen in Now and Then. The 1990 darkish comedy The Bonfire of the Vanities featured each Rita Wilson and Melanie Griffith. Prior to taking part in the identical character, Teeny, in Now and Then, Griffith and Thora Birch starred in the 1991 drama Paradise. And Rosie O’Donnell and Wilson each appeared in 1993’s hit rom-com Sleepless in Seattle.

Though they hadn’t labored collectively but, Gaby Hoffman and Christina Ricci were additionally already acquainted as a result of they typically noticed one another at auditions. In a 2022 joint interview with Hoffmann, Ricci recalled, “I think the first time I met you, you were 7 years old or something. Gaby was the most adorable little girl: long legs, [like a] colt, and then crazy, huge hair. I wanted to be friends with her for a long time, and then we ended up on a movie together.” The two grew to become shut buddies throughout manufacturing, which concerned common weekend journeys to look at—and rewatch—Pulp Fiction on the native movie show. (Devon Sawa recalled attending 4 or 5 of those outings.)

As for the remainder of the solid members, some have referenced on-set friction, however no long-term grudges appear to have emerged. Birch has said, “If I’m being honest, the thing was we were all 12 to 14 years old when we were making that film. And if anybody knows anything about 12 to 14-year-old girls, it doesn’t go well.”

According to Sawa, “We were like, 13, 14, 15 years old. Everything you can imagine in a childhood camp went on. Bickering between the girls, bickering between us. Then the next day everyone’s friends again, then somebody’s not talking to somebody. It was so childish and so innocent. I don’t think anybody would recall what it was all about.” 

Christina Ricci advocated for Devon Sawa to get the a part of Scott Wormer.

Sawa performs Scott, the enemy-turned-love-interest to Ricci’s Roberta. Before Now and Then, the 2 met on the set of the household ghost flick Casper, which was also released in 1995. Because Sawa performs the human model of the titular ghost, he solely spent a day and a half filming, however that concerned attending one week of faculty with Ricci, and the 2 clicked.

Over the years, Sawa has repeatedly given Ricci credit for serving to him get the position in Now and Then. In 2019, he recalled his audition course of to Vulture: “I remember that I was in my childhood home in British Columbia, Canada, and this gentleman I used to put myself on tape with, who was an actor in Vancouver—the same guy that put me on tape for Casper—he came over and we laid down a VHS tape in our family room, and sent it off. I know that I’d been recommended by Christina Ricci for the part, and I waited a good solid week, and learned that I got it.”

As for the kissing scene the 2 ultimately filmed, they saved the peck for his or her first take, which Sawa believed helped with authenticity. “We rehearsed the lines and just kept the kiss for the first take, so it would feel the way it did, which was supposed to be awkward and uncomfortable for me and whatever for her,” he mentioned. “It all played into it.” 

Leonardo DiCaprio nearly performed the Vietnam veteran half that went to Brendan Fraser.

On their manner residence from Greenfield, the 4 younger buddies encounter a hitchhiking Vietnam veteran. According to King, the character supplied for the ladies “a hint of how the world [was] changing.” Brendan Fraser would ultimately play the position, however the half nearly went to a different ’90s heartthrob: Leonardo DiCaprio. He was solid, however a last-minute scheduling problem popped up (Entertainment Tonight speculates it might have been manufacturing for the 1995 movie Total Eclipse). Fraser swapped in for DiCaprio and, as King put it, “did such a good job.”

Roberta was initially homosexual.

On the web page and all through manufacturing, Roberta was a lesbian. Both Rosie O’Donnell and Christina Ricci performed the character with that data in thoughts. However, check screening audiences regularly clutched their pearls about the truth that Roberta was homosexual and likewise Chrissy’s gynecologist, and New Line deemed the character’s sexuality to be too distracting. They eliminated all references to Roberta being homosexual and added a line about her residing in sin together with her boyfriend. King has mentioned, “I know Rosie was really upset when they changed it at the last minute, and we all were.”

In a 2023 podcast interview, O’Donnell explained, “They took every little tiny thing that I had done to build the character into an accurate gay woman and made her straight.” In 2022, Ricci additionally expressed her dissatisfaction with the change, saying, “I just think it’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. Why would you bother? … It’s so bizarre.” She went on to name her character “clearly a lesbian.”

The tree holding the treehouse was lifeless.

At the start of the movie, the 4 grownup ladies reconnect within the yard of Chrissy’s home. To transition to their youthful selves, the digicam pans up to a treehouse. When the digicam pans again down, it’s 1970, and there’s no treehouse. It hasn’t been constructed but, as the ladies will spend that summer time saving up the cash to purchase it. It’s a picturesque tree on display screen, however it was actually dead. To get the best tree, the crew lower one down, and moved it to the filming location. They had so as to add additional help to the lifeless trunk so it might maintain the treehouse with actors inside. 

The photograph of Roberta’s mother was really one among Now and Then’s producers.

A vital piece of Roberta’s backstory is the demise of her mom when she was 4 years previous. Young Roberta grapples with this loss all through the summer time, ultimately studying and breaking down over the truth that her dad lied about it being a painless demise. As the movie introduces the younger buddies, Roberta is seen taking a photograph of her mother off her bed room mirror and sticking it in her again pocket. Samantha’s voiceover explains that Roberta brings the image together with her each time she leaves the home. The lady within the photograph is Jennifer Todd, the movie’s producer. 

There are some popular culture anachronisms.

Leading as much as a bonding pivotal second between the 2 buddies, Sam finds Teeny on the roof of her home watching Love Story play on a close-by drive-in film display screen. It completely suits for Teeny, who spends the summer time fixated on boys. The drawback: Love Story wasn’t released till December 16, 1970, the winter after the scene would have taken place. Another anachronism happens when the ladies are biking and singing alongside to a radio that’s affixed to Teeny’s bicycle. They’re singing “Knock Three Times” by the band Dawn (who ultimately modified their identify to Tony Orlando and Dawn). That tune wasn’t recorded till the autumn of 1970. It grew to become a No. 1 hit in January 1971. 

Gaby Hoffman didn’t like her Nineteen Seventies wardrobe.

An unearthed behind-the-scenes video shows the cast being interviewed by Entertainment Tonight on the night they filmed the séance. The clip additionally encompasses a walkthrough of the wardrobe trailer, led by Hoffman, who had loads of gripes in regards to the “lovely” garments she needed to put on in an effort to not look too “now.” She clearly would have most popular a Nineteen Sixties period look, as she complained, “It’s 1970, so we don’t get the cool clothes, like bell bottoms and every other thing like that. We get, like, the right in-between ugly clothes.”

Her least favourite outfit? The checkered shorts and pink high she wears in the course of the sequence through which the ladies bike to the Greenfield Library. Holding the shorts, she mentioned, “These, I have to wear the longest day in the movie, and I hate them the most. And they go with my really ugly top.” 

It was poorly reviewed, however made cash and have become a cult traditional.

When Now and Then was launched on October 20, 1995, it got bad reviews and unfavorable comparisons to 1986’s coming-of-age movie Stand By Me. The LA Times called Now and Then “a memory film that derails into a smoldering heap before leaving the station.” The New York Times deemed it “a little dull and much too predictable.” King recalled, “I remember my mom calling me and saying that Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs down and she was so upset. I was like, ‘Oh, mom, they’re just two old dudes. They’re not going to get it and the audience will.’ ”

King was right that an viewers discovered it and received it. Now and Then opened at No. 2 on the field workplace, behind the Hollywood mobster film Get Shorty, and it went on to earn $37.5 million off a $12 million price range. It’s now broadly thought of a cult traditional, with followers applauding its correct portrayal of girlhood and the problems that come up inside crushes, households, and friendships. 

There was nearly a TV adaptation.

King went on to develop into the chief producer and showrunner of the favored teen drama TV present Pretty Little Liars, which ran from 2010 through 2017. As the present took off in reputation, there was a resurgence of curiosity in Now and Then, which led to the event of its personal TV adaptation. The present by no means received made, which King has clarified was because of the community’s push for a later timeline. In 2015, she informed Entertainment Weekly, “It was on ABC Family but they wanted to change it so the ‘now’ was present day and the ‘then’ would be the ’90s. I didn’t want to do that—I felt that kind of ruins how special the movie is. The movie still is so special to so many people, I didn’t want to take a chance on changing the time period. To me, there will never be a 1970s again, so to try to set it in the ’90s when we had cell phones and things like that, I don’t think it would work.”

Though the TV model by no means got here to fruition, King and Glatter did work collectively after Now and Then. Glatter directed the pilot and first two season finales of Pretty Little Liars. Previously, Glatter had directed 4 episodes of Twin Peaks, and King has mentioned that she needed Pretty Little Liars to be “Now and Then meets Twin Peaks for teenage girls.”