Trivia / Carrie (2002)

• Ability over Appearance:
  • Angela Bettis, not really matching the book's description but giving a great performance as Carrie. Though she did work hard to match other parts of the character's description.
  • Chris is olive-skinned and black-haired in the book but is played by blonde Emilie de Ravin who absolutely nails the bitchy attitude.
  • Kandyse McClure turns in such a great performance as Sue that most viewers don't even notice the Race Lift. Ironically enough McClure still has a strong resemblance to Amy Irving, despite being black.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Carrie's speech about her own faith to her mother came about because David Keith asked the director to include some more positive lines about religion.
  "I knew he was totally right and was totally valid, so I wrote some new scenes and they were some of my favorite scenes in the show."
• Blooper: When Detective Mulcahey is looking through Carrie's yearbook, the same six students are on each page.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Bryan Fuller has admitted that the movie "doesn't quite hold up". But he maintains he had fun making it, the acting was fantastic, and there are parts he's proud of.
  • Angela Bettis, on the other hand, was not nearly so kind. She hated the film, comparing it to "Carrie meets 90210" and saying that, had she not starred in it, she never would've watched it and probably would've instead been one of the fans of the original angrily denouncing it sight unseen. She turned down the role three times before she finally accepted, and when she did, it was mainly for the money. When asked about the planned TV series (which was still being talked out), she said she would be reluctant to do one as well.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Carrie is played by the 29-year-old Angela Bettis, who was notably just two months away from turning 30 when the film premiered in November 2002.
  • Tommy is played by the 26-year-old Tobias Mehler.
  • Norma is played by the 24-year-old Meghan Black.
  • Sue is played by the 22-year-old Kandyse McClure.
  • Emilie de Ravin as Chris and Katharine Isabelle as Tina were borderline, being 20 and 19 years old respectively. Chelan Simmons as Helen was an aversion, having been 18 at the time.
• Deleted Role: Jasmine Guy filmed scenes as a psychic detective who would lock horns with Detective Mulcahey. They were all cut late in production.
• Disowned Adaptation: Stephen King is not too fond of this version.
• Distanced from Current Events: Part of the reason Carrie is portrayed as going into a trance during the prom massacre is because after the Columbine school shootings, the idea of a teenage vigilante murdering her oppressors was extremely sensitive at the time.
• Executive Meddling: The reason for the cheap-looking effects were from the network demanding more CGI but the studio being unwilling to pay more money for it.
  Bryan Fuller: "We weren't giving them the resources they needed to do them right, but we were insisting on having them. It bit us on the ass because it looked cheap."
• Fake American: Having been shot in Vancouver, the film was so jam-packed with "Hollywood North" Canadians-playing-Americans that it would be simpler to list the actors who weren't Canucks: the Americans Angela Bettis, Patricia Clarkson, Rena Sofer, and David Keith, and the Australian Emilie de Ravin.
• Money, Dear Boy: Angela Bettis mainly took the role of Carrie because of the money, allowing her to do the smaller indie film May - which didn't pay as well but she was really keen to do.
• One for the Money; One for the Art: Angela Bettis said as much about her involvement was this. The film was planned as a Pilot Movie for a TV series that she hoped would give her the financial security to pursue indie projects like May.
• Playing Against Type: Emilie de Ravin is more known for playing heroic characters. Her turn as Alpha Bitch Chris was different for her. Though at the time it was a Subverted Trope as her most well-known role then was the villainous Tess.
• Promoted Fanboy: Angela Bettis was a fan of both the book and the original film. It's actually a major reason why she regards this film as an Old Shame.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Patricia Clarkson and Angela Bettis certainly look as though they could be mother and daughter.
• Stillborn Franchise: It was a Pilot Movie for a series that was never made. The Carrie series was actually MGM's idea, not NBC's. The network only ordered a TV movie and even after the film's success in the ratings justified a series, NBC refused to go forward with it. The altered ending may have been to satisfy MGM in the event that they wanted to shop the show around to another network.
• Technology Marches On: A teenage girl using her cell phone to make a call in lieu of texting and mentions of e-mail being used as communication between two teenage girls horribly dates the movie that was at one time intended to be an update. There's also the blocky computer screens in the library.
• Typecasting:
  • Angela Bettis had starred in the similar film May, about a Shrinking Violet who eventually becomes a murderer. She was actually approached for Carrie because of her work in May, though the former was released first - leading to people thinking it was the other way round. She also drew comparisons between Carrie and a production of The Crucible, where she had played Abigail.
  • Tying in with this, Jodelle Ferland, who played the younger Carrie, often found herself cast in similar Creepy Child roles - Silent Hill^note In fact her character Alessa in the games was inspired by Carrie., The Twilight Saga Eclipse, The Cabin in the Woods.
  • Chelan Simmons was often cast as the Lovable Alpha Bitch who dies horribly around this time, notably in Final Destination 2, Edgemont, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, and Supernatural. She starred in the series MTV's What Now? without the latter part, since it wasn't horror.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally just planned as a standalone Truer to the Text adaptation, the studio saw potential to turn it into a Pilot Movie for a potential series that was never picked up. Angela Bettis has shared some of the ideas that she heard about.
  "The ideas I've heard are Carrie and Sue Snell taking off for Florida, like Thelma & Louise... I've heard something else about how the town reacts after this great catastrophe, like what happened after Columbine. Here's this girl dealing with her psychokinesis and the fact that she wiped out an entire town of people!"
  • In addition to that, there was talk of the end following the book a little more closely, having Carrie still die as originally written but instead transferring her powers to Sue or seeing another girl with telekinesis being born (which the book's ending does hint at). Ultimately, Bryan Fuller felt so sorry for the torment Carrie suffered that he couldn't bear to kill her off.

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