'Romy and Michele's High School Reunion' turns 20: Lisa Kudrow and Robin Schiff tell stories from set
Lisa Kudrow and writer Robin Schiff reflect on making the film.
— -- Lisa Kudrow is perhaps best known for starring as lovable space cadet Phoebe Buffay in "Friends," but in 1997 she won acclaim for playing another ditz with a heart of gold: Michele Weinberger in "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion."
In the comedy, which premiered 20 years ago today, Kudrow and Mira Sorvino co-starred as two offbeat, fashion-obsessed best friends who go to great lengths to impress their former classmates at their 10-year high school reunion.
Thanks in part to regular showings on television, the film, which Kudrow described as "candy," developed a cult following, and she told ABC News that even today, people go up to her to recite their favorite lines.
"I think it was really funny, and then also, there was heart," she said of the film. "They were these two people [who] loved each other."
However, even the biggest fans of the film may not know everything about it. ABC News spoke with Kudrow and the film's writer and executive producer, Robin Schiff, about the production.
1. The film began as a play: About 30 years ago, Robin Schiff wrote a popular play called "Ladies' Room," which took place in a women's bathroom. Two of the most popular characters in the show were Romy and Michele, vapid friends intent on picking up high-earning men. Kudrow originated the role of Michele, and her friend Christie Mellor played Romy. After the idea of a TV pilot focused on the characters failed to take off, Touchstone film executives approached Schiff about making a movie about the pair, hoping she could create "a female 'Wayne's World,'" she said. Noting that she wanted to do a movie focused on universal issues rather than the ones more often explored in female-driven films, Schiff admitted that the details of the plot stumped her. "I didn't know what to do, so I said, 'Romy and Michele Go to Japan,' 'Romy and Michele Go to College,' and I'm driving one day, and I think to myself, 'They are invited to the reunion, and they don't realize that their lives have amounted to nothing until they fill out the questionnaire,'" she told ABC News. "It made me laugh out loud. I had gone to my 10-year reunion, and so I was able to pull off real emotions, even though it's done in a heightened way." The film will soon find its way back to the stage: On June 8, "Romy and Michele's High School Reunion: The Musical" will open at the 5th Avenue Theatre in Seattle.
2. A line about vomiting proved to be very important: Kudrow was asked to read the part of Michele during a backer's audition, which was meant to raise money for the production. At the time, one exchange in the script struck her as particularly hilarious: Romy tells Michele that she hates throwing up in public, to which Michele responds, "Me too!" "It just seems very funny if you were really enthusiastic about, 'Oh, my gosh, we have so much in common! I also hate throwing up in public! That's so unique to both of us!'" Kudrow said with a laugh. "That's why I got the part, because I said, 'Me too!'"
"Lisa played it with such confidence," Schiff said. "It gave me the idea that Michele was the follower, and I started building out a character. I don't know if Lisa acknowledges the amount that she helped me create Michele. She inspired me."
3. "Friends" made the movie possible, and "Titanic" may have helped too: Though Kudrow began playing Michele in the 1980s, the film didn't begin production until after she began starring in "Friends" in 1994. Kudrow couldn't wait to make the movie and recalled learning lines while on her honeymoon. "I didn't have to audition, so that was good," she said.
Schiff said that Kudrow's then-newfound stardom helped get the movie made and guessed that the success of two other films might have helped too. "Right before the movie got greenlit, 'Clueless' came out, and there was a market for something that was female driven," she said. "'Titanic' came out, and it was propelled by this female audience, and maybe there was a pinprick window where they thought, 'We'll make something for the female audience because they'll see something multiple times.'"
4. Sorvino put her own spin on Romy: "By the time we did the movie, they really wanted a star and a co-star, so Mira was offered the part," Schiff said of casting Sorvino, who had just won an Oscar for "Mighty Aphrodite." "She came in with the [masculine] voice and the [lumbering] walk ... and she worked with me on the scene where they tell off the A group. She had really good ideas. It was a collaboration."
Kudrow acknowledged that while it may have been difficult for Sorvino to step into a role that was originated a decade earlier, "she knows what she's doing, and she was great ... I missed Christie, for sure, but they got Mira, and you can't argue with that casting ... I like Mira a lot. She's smart, and she's a genuinely good person."
5. Everybody on set gushed over then-newcomer Justin Theroux: Kudrow acknowledged the coincidence that she worked alongside Theroux during the same period she was starring with his now-wife, Jennifer Aniston, in "Friends," though it didn't occur to her right away. "I remember the first time we saw each other recently, we had been talking, and it didn't come up at all, and then I was like, 'Wait! You were in 'Romy and Michele's.' [He said], 'Right! Oh, my God!'" she said. "I don't think I met him much on that shoot because I wasn't in those scenes, but I heard about him because everybody was talking about, 'Oh, my God, he's the funniest, the coolest.' Everyone went on and on. Janeane Garofalo was going nuts. She was like, 'He's fantastic. That guy's great.'"
6. Romy's lie about creating Post-its wasn't an obvious one for Schiff: "I liked the idea that they would come up with something [to lie about], and I literally thought of everything you could think of — they're rock 'n' roll managers, jobs they thought were cool — but there were problems with all of them," she said. "But the woman who invented Wite-Out liquid paper made a gazillion dollars, so I started thinking, 'It could be something like that,' and [the idea of Romy saying she invented] Post-its made me laugh out loud."
Sadly, Kudrow said, she no longer remembers the formula for glue, which she had to memorize for that story line. "I know something about 'You have to set the resin,'" she said. "No, and I had to do it many, many times. I was proud of myself that I was able to even do it." However, the scene remains close to her heart — and her desk. In addition to a framed photo of herself with Garofolo and Sorvino, Kudrow said that she kept a Post-it dispenser from the set as a memento.
7. The costumes were "the third character," according to Kudrow: From the business suits that Romy and Michele first wear to the reunion to the "comfortable" pastel dresses they later don, Kudrow credits the costume, hair and makeup teams for making the film what it is. Still, she admitted she had to psych herself up to appear onscreen in just a bra and miniskirt for one scene. "Remember? 'Sorry, I forgot my top'?" Kudrow recalled. "That was tricky."
Schiff said the color palette keeps the movie from feeling dated. "The colors of the whole movie are so vivid, and it's not trendy. I think that's another reason why it's helped," she said. "It was this alternative universe anyway."
8. Will Ferrell had a part that was cut from the film: Like Schiff and Kudrow, Ferrell got his start with the Groundlings, a comedy troupe in Los Angeles, and was cast as a waiter who tries to help Romy at the reunion. Sadly, his scene was cut in editing.
9. Some of the most memorable moments were improvised: Director David Mirkin would continue filming well after a scripted scene ended, which allowed Kudrow to improvise here and there. A few scenes that she expanded: Michele's failed job interview at Versace and making faces at a boy in another car on a highway. "You can see being an improviser and having been Michele all this time — that was genius," Schiff said. "All I do is feel grateful."
Kudrow said that the scene she was most excited to influence was the dance number near the end. "Mira was full of ideas, and Alan [Cumming] of course knows what he's doing, but I just was like, 'O.K., I don't dance, so I think it's really funny if Michele just poses and she thinks she's dancing,'" Kudrow recalled. It worked.
10. A sequel was discussed, but the studio wasn't having it: Kudrow is open to the idea of a "Romy and Michele" sequel, though finding a plot would be challenging, she said. "I don't know what that would be. 'Romy and Michele Get Divorced Again'?" she said. "We talked about it that with Robin Schfif, but [the studio] just wasn't interested."
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