Trivia / My Girl

• Billing Displacement: Macaulay Culkin's presence in the movie was hyped up after the success of Home Alone. In reality, it's Small Role, Big Impact. In contrast the then unknown Anna Chlumsky gets billed fourth in the credits (below Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis and Culkin) despite playing the lead role.
• California Doubling: The movie is set in Pennsylvania but was almost entirely shot in Florida.
• Creator Breakdown: Anna Chlumsky struggled with the sudden overnight fame the movie brought her at age 11, especially with how she immediately became a breadwinner for her family and the increased scrutiny that came with being in the public eye. She even admits to having to go into therapy to deal with it, which is one of the reasons she initially retired from acting to go back to college.
• Enforced Method Acting: Anna Chlumsy recalls that, to get her properly sad for Vada's speech at Thomas J's funeral, her mother said "picture me in that casket".
• Executive Meddling: The film came close to getting a PG-13 rating due to the fact that a funeral home and a character death feature prominently. After an appeal, it was changed to PG.
• Funny Character, Boring Actor: Inverted. Macaulay Culkin said that it was weird for him to play such a shy character like Thomas J. Anna Chlumsky agreed, calling him a bigger Motor Mouth and prankster than his character.
• I Am Not Spock: Although she has done many other roles, including her Emmy nominated turn in the HBO series Veep, Anna Chlumsky is still remembered as Vada, and confessed to being sick of getting asked about this film.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: As early 90s CGI was nowhere near convincing enough, Macaulay Culkin had to act alongside real bees, with pollen smeared onto his hands to get the bees to keep swarming around him.
• Real-Life Relative: Anna Chlumsky's mother Nancy L. Chlumsky plays a small role as Jackie, she is the one who says "Ooooh, that's really cool" after hearing two of the students suggest a meditation session before class.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Elijah Wood came very close to getting the role of Thomas J, but it went to Macaulay Culkin after the success of Home Alone. The latter almost wasn't cast out of fear it would hinder the Box Office performance once word got out that he dies, but they did it after pressure from his infamous Stage Dad.
  • Hundreds of angry fans protested against Thomas J's death trying to get the filmmakers to remove it. They didn't.
  • Chevy Chase was the first choice for the role of Harry. He wasn't sure, since he hadn't much experience in dramatic roles - and Dan Aykroyd was suggested after his performance in Driving Miss Daisy. Steve Martin and Bill Murray were also considered.
  • A third movie was planned, titled 'Still My Girl', but fell into development hell in the 2000s, and Anna Chlumsky announced she did not want to do another one in 2012.
• Working Title: The film's working title was Born Jaundiced but it went through a number of possible names - mostly puns relating to the funeral home setting.
• Writer Revolt: Howard Zieff made sure to not make the period setting too on the nose, as he wanted the audience to not think of it as a period movie, but a Coming of Age Story that just happened to take place in the 70s.

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