It’s been almost 20 years since the first The Princess Diaries came out, but Anne Hathaway let fans in on a sweet and major secret about the first film. One of its most iconic moments—Mia Thermopolis slipping on the bleachers while talking with Lily—wasn’t scripted. In a bonus clip from The Happy Days Of Garry Marshall, a special honoring the late director behind The Princess Diaries and other films, Hathaway spoke about how it happened.
“One of the things that I love about Garry is that he was never afraid of the spontaneous moment,” Hathaway started. “If it was good, it was in the movie. He didn’t care where it came from, he didn’t care what happened.”
“And there was this moment when we were filming,” she continued. “We were filming in San Francisco. Predictably, it had rained. We were outside, and we had to get the shot really fast because we were losing light. And we had to go on these bleachers and they did their best to wipe them down. And Gary had just said, ‘Okay, there’s a lot of exposition in this scene, but he would’ve said, ‘There’s a lot of pipe in this scene so we just have to say it really fast.'”
Hathaway detailed the kind of movement Marshall told them to have. “‘Whenever Heather Matarazzo [is] at the bottom step, I want you to be at the top step of the bleacher. And you just walk back and forth, and we’re gonna get all this information and it’s gonna be cute because you guys are moving.’ I guess one take Heather had a lot of energy, so she was moving faster, and I mistimed it, and I realized that we were going to be on the same step so I turn really fast, slipped on a puddle, and just fell. Absolutely fell and burst out laughing and kept going with the scene. Never thought about it again and all of a sudden, like six months later it’s in the trailer. He kept it! He kept it because it was a charming moment.” You can watch the moment in the trailer here:
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And Hathaway discussing it now below:
This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.