Trivia / Remember the Titans

• Actor-Shared Background: Kip Pardue also played quarterback at college, like his character Sunshine.
• Approval of God: In reality, Sheryl had three sisters, but all three were fine with her being portrayed as an only child in the film. She had passed away only four years previously at the age of 34, and they saw it as a nice tribute to her.
• Creator's Oddball: Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who is better known for more explodey films.
• Dawson Casting: Ryan Hurst and Ethan Suplee (23), Kip Pardue (24), Donald Faison (25), and especially Wood Harris (30) playing high school football players. Only Ryan Gosling (19) and Kate Bosworth (16) were actually in their teens.
• Executive Meddling: The original script was full of profanity but Disney, in an effort to produce a good family film, asked Jerry Bruckheimer to remove all extreme profanity from the script.
• Follow the Leader:
  • The success of this film is probably right next to Hoosiers in terms of "influential sports movie." Glory Road, We Are Marshall, Coach Carter and The Blind Side are right in the same category.
  • Also within Disney itself. With the box office success of Titans, it signaled the end of Disney's goofy kid-centric sports films like The Mighty Ducks series and ushered in a wave of serious sports biopics from the studio specifically aimed at older audiences, such as Miracle, Invincible, The Greatest Game Ever Played, McFarland, USA and the aforementioned Glory Road.
• What Could Have Been: Josh Hartnett auditioned for the role of Gerry Bertier.

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