Trivia / St. Elmo's Fire

• Actor-Inspired Element: The "booga-booga" cheer that the friends do when they are celebrating or just in a good mood was not originally in the script. In a later interview, Rob Lowe stated that the cheer came out of observing fans whispering about the stars of the movie and then laughing. The cheer itself makes fun of what these whispered conversations sounded like from a few feet away.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: Two of them, with "St. Elmo's Fire (Man In Motion)" by John Parr and the instrumental "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" by David Foster. Younger fans may have no idea that there was a movie attached to these songs.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Joel Schumacher.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Emilio Estevez originally wanted to play Billy Hicks.
  • Ally Sheedy originally wanted to play Jules. Joel Schumacher convinced her to take the role of Leslie.
  • Bronson Pinchot was up for the role of Kevin Dolenz, but lost out to Andrew McCarthy because he was, according to a 1996 Movieline interview, too ethnic-looking.
• Creator Couple: Wendy's parents are played by Martin Balsam and Joyce Van Patten, who had been married, although they were divorced more than two decades before this film was made.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Mare Winningham played a virgin while she was actually pregnant during filming. She was also a Roman Catholic playing a Jew, though she did convert twenty years later.
• Method Acting: Playing roommates in the movie, Emilio Estevez and Andrew McCarthy roomed together to prepare for their roles in the film.
• Reality Subtext: Demi Moore had a drug problem, much like her character when she was cast in the film. One day, Joel Schumacher actually demanded that she leave the set because she was really high. Moore actually had to go through rehab and promise to stay clean in order to play a character with a drug problem.
• Real-Life Relative: Mare Winningham's brother, Patrick, appears as a band member of 'The New Breed' Band.
• Romance on the Set: Emilio Estevez and Demi Moore began dating during the filming of the movie. He said he was "deeply in love with her." For a time they were even engaged, though they never married.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Robert Downey Jr. was considered for Billy Hicks.
  • C. Thomas Howell auditioned for Kirby but didn't get it because he was too young.
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, Bridget Fonda, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sarah Jessica Parker, Meg Ryan, Brooke Shields and Elisabeth Shue were all considered for Leslie.
  • Jennifer Beals, Joan Cusack, Jodie Foster and Tatum O'Neal were offered the role of Jules, and they all turned it down.
  • Laura Dern auditioned for Naomi.
• Working Title: Columbia Pictures hated the title, going so far as to send a 35-page memo listing all of their issues with the proposed title and suggesting such alternatives as The Real World and Sparks.
• Write What You Know:
  • According to Joel Schumacher's DVD Commentary, co-screenwriter Carl Kurlander reportedly based Kirby's obsession with Dale on his own true-life university crush on a fellow student he had known on campus whilst studying at uni.
  • The interchanges between Kevin and the hooker were based on a conversation between a hooker and a limo driver that Joel Schumacher had once overheard.

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