All About John Tucker Must Die
The idea for John Tucker Must Die came to screenwriter Jeff Lowell when he was entertaining his own romantic revenge fantasies. “I came to the conclusion that all heartbreak begins in the formative teenage years,” says Lowell, “and started thinking about my own high school, where there was the ‘Big Man on Campus’ that every girl drooled over, including my girlfriend. Even back then, I realized there was nothing I could do about it. You can’t define yourself by who you’re dating.
“And then I thought about the popular girls at school, who they were and how they acted,” Lowell continues. “I remembered how every clique had a leader and, no matter what the group represented, the hottest one was always in charge. Even the ‘smart girls’ deferred to the prettier girl to lead them, even if she wasn’t particularly smart.” With those memories in mind, Lowell set out to write the script that would become John Tucker Must Die.
Lowell’s screenplay eventually found its way into the hands of producer Bob Cooper, the former president of both HBO and TriStar Pictures and ex-production head of DreamWorks, who currently runs Landscape Entertainment. “When I first read the script, I thought, Wow, it’s got all the ingredients. It was breezy, fun, and comedic,” recalls Cooper. “But it also had a relatable theme which, to me, is the most critical thing. It’s about how everyone in high school pretends to be something they’re not just to have some kind of acceptable identity. This, of course, makes it hard to know who anyone really is. It’s a vicious cycle.”
Within nine months of Cooper bringing the script to Twentieth Century Fox, the studio gave John Tucker Must Die the green light. Says Cooper, “They saw what I saw in it: a big, fun movie.” Now they needed the right director to execute that big comedy vision. Enter Betty Thomas, who’d helmed such major studio features as The Brady Bunch Movie, Private Parts and Doctor Dolittle. “Betty had a very specific vision for the film,” explains Cooper. “She wanted it to be more than just your typical fast-cutting, MTV-style youth movie. She was obsessed with giving John Tucker a design, an aura, and an energy all its own. I always found her an extraordinary framer of comedy and knew her work here would be no exception.
Like Cooper, Betty Thomas was immediately intrigued by the script. “The story felt fresher and more real than the average romantic comedy,” notes the director. “I felt like I’d never done a film like this, one that’s about finding out about the world of romance, how it affects you, what it means. I loved the idea of exploring all the games that go into having a relationship–fake or real.”
The filmmakers assembled a talented ensemble to play the various teens caught up in the comic undoing of campus heartthrob John Tucker. Rising star Brittany Snow was brought on board to play the lead role of Kate, the new girl in school enlisted to give serial dater Tucker a taste of his own medicine. Snow, who made strong impressions in both the acclaimed NBC series American Dreams and the hit movie comedy The Pacifier, was intrigued by the pivotal role. “I really, really identified with Kate,” the actress maintains. “I’d never read a script where I felt a part was ‘so me.’ I also thought it’d be a great chance to play the underdog, because it’s not often those characters get to be the lead.
“Kate and I have had similar experiences,” continues Snow. “We’ve both moved around a lot during school and we’re both a little dorky. I also identified with her quirks and how, as more of the quiet, observer type, she was constantly being overlooked. Kids in high school just don’t take the time to notice people that are a bit under the radar.”
For the prime role of high school ladies’ man John Tucker, Desperate Housewives’ hedge-clipping hottie Jesse Metcalfe turned out to be a hand-in-glove fit. Says producer Bob Cooper: “We needed an actor who would not only look the part, but could actually play basketball. Jesse knew his way around the hoops and liked to do his own stunts, too. He really filled the bill.”
Betty Thomas agrees. “Jesse’s so easy to respond to. Yes, he’s attractive, charming, relaxed, and athletic – qualities that were important for the role – but he also makes you feel at home, like you’re the only person in the room. That’s John Tucker’s greatest strength, too, why all the girls respond to him. Once I realized that, Jesse didn’t even have to audition for me. I knew he was the one.”
Adds Jesse Metcalfe: “I definitely wasn’t John Tucker in high school. I was a more ‘alternative’ kind of kid who was into music and dying my hair different colors. I sort of marched to my own beat. I wasn’t popular enough to be in any clique, either. I had basically, like, one really good friend and was probably a bit reclusive. That’s why it was so much fun to play this part; it was such a stretch from who I was at that age.
But Metcalfe also took the acting challenge seriously. “I knew I’d have to be very careful playing someone like John Tucker, because it’s an easy role to turn into caricature. There was also a responsibility to the audience to show the character’s vulnerability. Otherwise, he’d just be another jerk.”
A trio of young actresses was then cast as the conspiring students who decide to take action against the three-timing John Tucker. Arielle Kebbel, who was recently seen in Fox’s Aquamarine, was hired to play the ambitious Carrie. Kebbel calls her character “the kind of girl a guy would want to bring home to his parents. She has unstoppable energy, great resourcefulness, and definite intelligence. Carrie’s got plenty of sex appeal, too, can’t forget that!”
Chart-topping singing sensation Ashanti, who also acted in last year’s feature Coach Carter, was chosen to portray the school’s confident head cheerleader, Heather. “Ironically, in high school, I was a cheerleader and belonged to a clique, so my character and I share a few similarities,” says Ashanti. “On the other hand, I was a lot more down-to-earth than Heather and also very humble. And I never tried to seek revenge against anyone!”
Sophia Bush, who plays Brooke Davis on the popular TV series One Tree Hill, was cast as Beth, a ditzy, vegan/environmentalist. “The movie spoke to me on many levels,” states Bush. “I liked the way it looked at how men modify their behavior to be with women and the lies they tell to keep them interested. The script also said a lot about friendship – how boyfriends come and go, but friends are forever. That’s a great message and I wanted to be a part of it.”
As the main adult in the film, television and film star Jenny McCarthy was the top choice for Kate’s gorgeous, itinerant mother, who’s got a revolving door of boyfriends. “I’ve always played these wacky comedic characters, so the chance to actually play a mom with a teenage daughter seemed like such a nice change for me,” says McCarthy. “I really wanted the opportunity to show people I’ve got heart as well as a funny bone.”
Principal photography began in Vancouver, where most of the film was shot. While many American productions have filmed in the beautiful Canadian city, it’s generally used as a generic stand-in for somewhere else. John Tucker, however, is actually set in the Pacific Northwest, so the decision to shoot in Vancouver worked perfectly from not only the visual, technical, and financial standpoints, but for the story as well.
During the location scout, a happy accident led to the selection of the film’s most important venue, the Heritage Woods Secondary School, which would become the story’s fictional high school. The brand new high school, located in affluent Port Moody just 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver, had been built with an eye to the future and in response to all the new housing development underway in the area. The filmmakers couldn’t believe their good luck when they happened upon this ultra-modern structure.
“This high school had all of the elements we needed and then some,” says executive producer Marc S. Fischer. “The building offered all of the different looks we needed and, as we were shooting over the summer, we were able to use the school’s empty auditoriums as stages. It became a mini-studio for us.”
The school and its grounds were converted into over 30 different, fully dressed sets, including the library, the science room, the gym, the cafeteria, the hallway, the locker room, the war room, the track, and the parking lot, along with Kate’s bedroom and six different kitchens.
“We were able to offload our equipment, store it in the classrooms, come back the next morning, and everything would be right where we’d left it the night before,” says Fischer. “It was an extremely efficient way to work.”
“Betty [Thomas] wanted to ‘keep it real,’ so using such a modern-looking building fit her mantra to a tee,” says production designer Marcia Hinds. “It was exactly what new suburban high schools look like nowadays. It’s no longer about red brick and little desks. At the same time, we wanted to be visually inventive, which was a challenge with such a stark concrete-andwood structure. The first thing we did was to introduce in a lot of color and character. We chose a maroon, burgundy and gray palette, which may sound subtle, but was actually quite enriching and, again, ‘real.’
“In addition to adding a lot of interior graphics and signage, we utilized the school’s existing team name, the Kodiaks, as well as their bear paw logo,” Hinds continues. “It fit the film and it fit us, so we kept it. All in all, we worked with the school to create a look that would be permanent. That alone saved us a tremendous amount of time and money because we didn’t have to undo everything when were finished with it. When the kids came back to school in September, the entire school was professionally decorated!”
That décor also included new landscaping, an outdoor concrete sitting area, truckloads of classroom equipment, and a fully painted and graphically-designed gymnasium. Everything was left behind for the students to utilize and enjoy, including all of the production’s scenic painting, which went to support the school’s burgeoning theatre department.
Hinds says she had the most fun designing a scene depicting a birthday bash for John Tucker. “Think: the coolest party for the coolest kid in the school,” she says of the sequence, which was set in an enormous industrial warehouse. “The whole thing had a sexy, rock ‘n’ roll feel, which [cinematographer] Tony Richmond did a great job lighting. We filled the space with tons of huge balloons and giant fluorescent murals.”
Adds executive producer Marc S. Fischer: “That was a really big scene to shoot; we had 400 extras, four cameras going at once, techno cranes, and a band. There was a lot to organize for three days.” This included the coordination of the scene’s centerpiece: a super tricked-out partymobile. This custom-designed, gun-metal gray Chevy Tahoe came complete with a 50-inch flat screen TV monitor rising from the center of the roof, as well as over 100 speakers. “There were enough speakers for a Bruce Springsteen concert at the L.A. Coliseum,” laughs Fischer. “It was a pretty wild vehicle.”
The most logistically-complex scene to film involved two days on Vancouver’s scenic Burrard Inlet, where the production shot a sequence depicting of Kate’s first date with John Tucker. “Anytime you shoot on water, it’s very, very complicated,” explains Fischer, “and this time was no exception.” This particular sequence, in which Heather, Beth, and Carrie take out a motorized dinghy to spy on Kate and John – who are getting cozy in a huge sailboat – required much local cooperation to pull off.
To capture this nighttime scene, the crew was perched on three different floating barges – one for camera, one for lighting, and a third for director Betty Thomas and her “video village” to view what was being shot. The evening marine layer started kicking up during the filming, requiring divers to hunker down in the water and hold the boats steady.
Jesse Metcalfe was involved in another daunting scene, one of a more…personal nature. When John Tucker is seduced by the sexy Kate into visiting her hotel room, on the condition that he wears a red lace thong, he ends up risking life and limb to satisfy her unusual request. “I have to scale an outside ledge, until I reach her window, which is supposedly, like, four rooms down,” says Metcalfe. “I get through that, while wearing just a towel [over the thong], then come in through a sliding glass balcony door which turns out to be the girls’ gym teacher’s room, and not Kate’s. I’m then completely embarrassed by the gym teacher and my coach in front of all the other kids, and I don’t even get to be with Kate, who’s duped me, anyway! “It was a fun, physical, and very liberating scene to shoot, though I’m never wearing a thong again if I can help it. Those things are really uncomfortable.”
Metcalfe was also put through the paces for a scene where he acrobatically slam-dunks a basketball to impress Kate. The actor, who did most of his own stunts in the film, shot this crazy backward dunk with the help of a trampoline and a wire harness, which added a bit of visual magic to his own already solid hoop skills. Brittany Snow also worked with safety wires for the scene in which, as newbie cheerleader Kate, she tries to impress “Tuck” by balancing atop a precision pyramid. Says Snow: “Like many people, I have this incredible fear of falling and a fear of heights, so I had to overcome both in order to do the scene. If it hadn’t been for Betty [Thomas] making me laugh the whole time, I’m not sure I could’ve gotten through it.”
One of the hottest rock bands out of the U.K., People In Planes, makes its big screen debut in the film, providing the music for John Tucker’s birthday extravaganza. People In Planes band members found their first movie experience a little overwhelming. Singer / songwriter Gareth Jones, who also wrote the film’s title track entitled “Instantly Gratified,” says of the shoot, “We hadn’t done anything like that before. We’d filmed music videos but this was, like, a million times bigger. Though it sometimes felt bizarre, it’s ultimately an excellent opportunity to have our music heard by millions of people. You can’t beat that for motivation.”
In the end, lead actor Jesse Metcalfe thinks the film will leave young audiences with a solid, relatable message. “Though the movie reconfirms that high school is a lot about the social hierarchy, it also says to ignore that hierarchy. Fitting in isn’t always such a good thing. In fact, it’s hardly ever a good thing. It’s always best just to be true to yourself.”
John Tucker Must Die (2006)
Directed by: Betty Thomas
Starring: Jesse Metcalfe, Brittany Snow, Ashanti Douglas, Sophia Bush, Arielle Kebbel, Jenny McCarthy, Penn Badgley, Patricia Drake, Jeffrey Ballard, Taylor Kitsch, Amanda Li
Screenplay by: Jeff Lowell
Production Design by: Marcia Hinds
Cinematography by: Anthony B. Richmond
Film Editing by: Matt Friedman
Costume Design by: Alexandra Welker
Set Decoration by: Tedd Kuchera
Art Direction by: Bo Johnson
Music by: Richard Gibbs
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and language.
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: July 28, 2006
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