Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!!! I’ve been wanting to do a BTS article on Urban Legend for a long time because it’s one of my favorite slasher films. I think it’d be perfect for Spooky Season and I finally have everything I need to make a complete post. So, always check the back seat of your car, always turn on the lights when entering a room, and enjoy these fun pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com and IMDb.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• The film was supposed to be set in the middle of winter, hence the killer’s big winter coat. However, the weather was too warm and the filmmakers didn’t want to use fake snow and make the actors and extras wear winter clothes in the heat. So, they completely cut out the winter aspect but kept the killer’s costume.
• At the time of filming, Danielle Harris (Tosh) was a smoker and she was glad that she was allowed to smoke in the film. This ended up taking a turn as she had to smoke for hours all day for her scenes. She ended up getting sick of it and quit smoking not long after that.
• Sarah Michelle Gellar accepted the role of Sasha, but she had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with her show, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Tara Reid ended up getting the part.

• Before they were in this film together, Tara Reid and Danielle Harris were roommates in real life.
• The car that Michelle (Natasha Gregson Wagner) drove was supposed to be a Land Rover. However, the filmmakers realized that an axe couldn’t be swung in a Land Rover and they had to change it to a much larger vehicle.
• For the classroom scene, Rebecca Gayheart (Brenda) had to eat Pop Rocks all day and she ended up getting sick.

• When Damon (Joshua Jackson) and Natalie (Alicia Witt) were in his car, the song blasting in it was Paula Cole’s I Don’t Want To Wait. This is a nod to Joshua Jackson’s show, Dawson’s Creek.
• Joshua Jackson bought his mother a house with the money he earned working on this film.
• The author of The Encyclopedia Of Urban Legends was listed as Charles Breen, named after the film’s production designer.

• Alicia Witt was cast as Natalie because the film’s producers felt she was “against type” and also a strong actress.
• Robert Englund (Wexler) agreed to be in the film because he was impressed by the film’s concept and he was a fan of several of the other cast members.
• Tara Reid did her own stunts in her big chase scene. According to her, the stuntman in the killer’s costume used a real axe for the scene.

• Jodi Lyn O’Keefe was offered the role of Sasha, but she turned it down in favor of Halloween H20: 20 Years Later.
• Reese Witherspoon and Melissa Joan Hart were offered the role of Natalie, but they turned it down for unknown reasons. Jennifer Love Hewitt also turned down the role for fear of being typecast as a Scream Queen.
• Danielle Harris auditioned for the role of Natalie, but she was cast as her roommate, Tosh instead.

• The film’s director, Jamie Blanks wanted to keep the violence in the film more muted or implied. There were several violent moments in the script that were not filmed. One of the scenes included Michelle’s head rolling onto the road after she was decapitated.
• The film’s writer, Silvio Horta has a small cameo in the film. If you look behind Natalie and Parker (Michael Rosenbaum) in the auditorium, you can see him as one of the college students.
• The film took 53 days to shoot.

• Jamie Blanks only ever wanted one person to compose the score for this film, and it was Christopher Young. Blanks was a huge fan and he listened to Young’s music while filming and during post-production. Young was so touched by how badly Blanks wanted him for the film, he agreed to do the score despite his very busy schedule.
• In an early draft of the script, Reese (Loretta Devine) was a lesbian. This element in the script was later given to Vanessa (Eva Mendes) in Urban Legends: Final Cut.
• In an earlier draft of the script, Wexler was written to have bipolar disorder.

• In the beginning of the film, Paul (Jared Leto) teased Parker for being older than the average college student. In reality, Jared Leto is one year older than Michael Rosenbaum.
• Joshua Jackson and Rebecca Gayheart both appeared in Scream 2, another college-based slasher film. However in that one, they play neither the killer or a victim.
• Natasha Gregson Wagner was drawn to the role of Michelle because she felt it encompassed a proper scene that she could sink her teeth into.

• Alicia Witt and Loretta Devine share a birthday, August 21.
• Christopher Young recorded the score for this film in just 4 days.
• Danielle Harris was working on both this film and The Wild Thornberrys show. She had to commute between Los Angeles and Canada to accomplish both jobs. Both the show and this film premiered in September 1998.

• Supposedly, the Latin motto of the university, Amicum Optimum Factum, translates as “The Best Friend Did It.” If it’s true, this is a great item of foreshadowing!
• At the end of the film, Brenda is seen wearing a ribbon around her neck. This is possibly a nod to the popular tale of a girl whose head falls off if she removes the ribbon around her neck.
• Although Brenda was revealed as the killer in the film, in most of the scenes, the killer was played by stuntman, Matt Birman.

• Brenda’s last name is Bates, which is an homage to Norman Bates from Psycho.
• Damon’s death scene took 3 nights to shoot.
• When Rebecca Gayheart reminisced about her audition, she recalled having to go in and fight for the role of Brenda because there were numerous actresses who read for it. She herself read for the role multiple times and did many screen tests before the producers were finally convinced that she was right for the part.