Trivia / Cinderella (2015)

• Author's Saving Throw: The film makes a few alterations in response to criticisms of Disney's original animated version (Each human is a Flat Character, the search was poorly executed, the stepmother got away with her abuse towards Cinderella, etc.). For example, Ella and the Prince have more of a personality now, he has an actual name, he and Ella meet each other well before the ball, the Prince's hidden presence in the search party ensures that Cinderella is found, and Lady Tremaine and her daughters are actually punished in the end.^note er, Ella still forgives them, the stepsisters in particular as their antagonism was actually lesser than in the original film, but only because the movie's Aesop is "be kind to others". All three, and the Duke, are mentioned to have left the kingdom and never returned after this.
• Billing Displacement: Cate Blanchett, being the most famous and critically lauded member of the cast, is credited before Lily James who plays the film's central and title character and by far has the most screen time.
• Cast the Runner-Up: An inversion—Lily James had auditioned to play one of the Tremaine stepsisters. She was instead cast as Cinderella.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: The Japanese dub features actress/singer Mitsuki Takahata as Ella.
• Deleted Scene: A fairly large amount of them were cut, appearing only in the trailers, the novelization, or later on the Blu-ray.
  • The prologue with kid Ella was initially longer.
  • Lady Tremaine's party towards the beginning was extended, with one guest making a sexist remark, hence why she leaves and overhears Ella's father.
  • Additional scenes of Ella serving.
  • A brief conversation between Tremaine and Ella ("What have you been doing?" "Dreaming." "Then wake up!") was only in the trailers.
  • After the death of the father, Lady Tremaine pawns off his clothes and Ella retrieves a memento.
  • The dialogue during the fencing scene and ball announcement was shortened.
  • The Fairy Godmother explaining the slippers would be a memento and thus not disappear.
  • Ella and Kit having a longer conversation at the ball about their childhoods.
  • The Duke and Royal Guards find Ella after the spell has broken and question her.
  • Ella tries contacting Kit with a letter after the ball, but the Duke finds it first.
  • Kit telling the Captain about his plan to disguise himself as a guard during the search for Ella.
  • A scene after the wedding (where the theatrical film ends) where Ella and Kit return to her now-empty family home.
• Dueling Movies: With Into the Woods. A rare case, two fantasy films released by the same studio (Disney) within a span of 4 months will feature Cinderella as one of the central characters. Both however are based on differing versions of the original tale. Into The Woods adapts the Brothers Grimm version - where there's a ball for three days, the dress is granted by a wish at her mother's grave and the stepsisters cut up their feet to fit into the glass slipper. This and the Disney original adapt the Charles Perrault version - where there's one ball and a Fairy Godmother conjures everything.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Richard Madden had to have his hair chemically straightened and have extensions put it, as his hair was too short beforehand.
  • Lily James is also naturally brunette, but became blonde for the role. Notably although she was a blonde in Downton Abbey, she wore a wig there. She also went blonde for Fast Girls.
• Fake Brit: Australian Cate Blanchett puts on an English accent as Lady Tremaine. Richard Madden disguises his Scottish accent under an English one to play Kit as well. Rob Brydon however is able to keep his natural Welsh accent as Master Phineus.
• Fatal Method Acting: A near-miss. While filming the wedding, Lily James stood too close to a heater and the dress caught fire. They were able to quickly put it out.
• Follow the Leader: To Alice in Wonderland (2010), being a Live-Action Adaptation of a source material previously adapted into the Disney Animated Canon. Also to Maleficent, which is what this one was compared to a lot in the months leading to its release. They were even filmed at the same studios (Pinewood in England).
• Playing Against Type:
  • Kenneth Branagh, best known for directing adaptations of Shakespeare, directing a big budget special effects laden movie based on a Disney classic. This wasn't the first time that he directed something outside of his usual fare.
  • Cate Blanchett is normally a heroic leading lady, here she's the Wicked Stepmother. She commented on people's reactions when she told them she'd be in the film - as most assumed she meant she was playing the lead.
  • Helena Bonham Carter takes a break from playing dark nutcases (though the nutcase bit could be debatable!) to play the Fairy Godmother.
  • Sophie McShera had been known as doe-eyed Cute Clumsy Girls in Waterloo Road, Galavant and Downton Abbey (the latter two of which she also played maids). A bullying aristocrat like Drizella is a little different for her.
  • To a lesser extent Hayley Atwell - who is best known for her role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Action Girl Peggy Carter - plays Ella's saintly birth mother.
• Production Posse: Sir Derek Jacobi, Stellan Skarsgård, Helena Bonham Carter and Gerard Horan returned to film with Branagh, and Branagh's frequent composer Patrick Doyle wrote the score.
• Star-Making Role: Although she had some buzz from the stage and Downton Abbey, Lily James was put on the map with this film. Soon she was starring in Baby Driver, Darkest Hour, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Sorry to Bother You.
• Throw It In!:
  • Ella dancing while singing "Lavender's Blue" in the attic was improvised by Lily James.
  • Sophie McShera and Holliday Granger improvised their lines on set for the stepsisters' first scene.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Among the candidates for playing Cinderella in this film were Emma Watson, Gabriella Wilde, Saoirse Ronan, Alicia Vikander, Bella Heathcote and Margot Robbie. Amanda Seyfried was also heavily attached to the project for years, presumably before the film settled on a mostly British cast.
    • Emma Watson, however, did manage to portray another Disney Princess in a live-action remake.
  • Originally, the sisters were going to mutilate themselves to fit the slipper like in the Grimms' version (despite Disney basing Cinderella on the earlier Perrault variant), but Disney vetoed that for being too dark, going so far as to replace the director who suggested it. Weirdly, Disney had no problem with Into the Woods doing the same, likely because Into the Woods adapts the Brothers Grimm version, while both this film and the Disney animated classic are based more on the French version.
  • Lily James initially auditioned for one of the ugly stepsisters. Yes, really.
  • Lily James claimed that a shot from the carriage chase back to the house featured her running around inside the pumpkin with her arms and legs sticking out. The shot ended up cut, possibly due to potential Narm.

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