Trivia / Poison Ivy

Trivia for the 1992 film and its sequels:

• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Sylvie is Ambiguously Gay whilst her actor Sara Gilbert is openly a lesbian in real life.
  • The titular Ivy is a Depraved Bisexual while Drew Barrymore is openly bisexual.
• Breakthrough Hit: The success of this helped establish Katt Shea as a director.
• Creator Backlash: Katt Shea doesn't like the sequels, calling them "exploitative," and says her first film was supposed to be a standalone story.
• Dawson Casting: Averted for Drew Barrymore and Sara Gilbert, who were the same age as Ivy and Sylvie respectively.
• Executive Meddling: Ivy lived at the end of the original script. They even filmed an ending scene of Ivy leaving the Coopers' house and hitchhiking. The studio however insisted that Ivy had to die.
• Follow the Leader: The film was greenlit because New Line wanted "a teenage Fatal Attraction".
• Meta Casting: Drew Barrymore plays a manipulative Fille Fatale around the same time she had gained public notoriety as a mess of a Former Child Star. Oddly, her later shift into an adorable Romantic Comedy mainstay makes this film feel like retroactive Playing Against Type.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Drew Barrymore wore a wig for the reshot ending, as she'd cut her hair since then.
• Throw It In!: Sara Gilbert ad-libbed the final line of the film. The crew thought it was stupid, but Katt Shea defended her and said that it's what Sylvie would have felt.
• Vindicated by Cable: The film flopped at the Box Office but generated strong enough word of mouth to enjoy success when it was aired on TV.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Drew Barrymore actually missed her first audition. Katt Shea really wanted her for the part, and arranged a second audition, which Drew also no-showed. Her agent then informed the director that she was no longer interested. Katt Shea pushed for her to audition one more time, and Drew did so in her home, not realising she basically had the role already.
  • Despite Ivy dying at the end, Katt Shea recalls being asked to resurrect her for the sake of sequels. She refused at the time but came to regret that decision.
• Working Title: The film's working titles were Fast Lane, Ivy and Our House, but Katt Shea thought of 'Poison Ivy' during filming. At first she thought it sounded too ridiculous, but the crew told her it was a good title.
• Write What You Know: Producer Melissa Goddard claims that the film is partially inspired by an experience she had while she was younger; a friend stayed over for a sleepover and tried to seduce her father.

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