Trivia / Elizabeth Berkley

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Her manager tried to get her to turn down Roger Dodger but she insisted because she found the script funny.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Jessie Spano didn't exist in the initial treatment for Saved by the Bell, and Elizabeth was auditioning for Kelly. They liked her audition so much they created Jessie for her to play.
• Costume Backlash: She disliked a lot of Jessie's outfits, as the character didn't dress as femininely as Kelly or Lisa.
• Dawson Casting: Not initially on Saved by the Bell, where she was 17 in the first season, but 21 by the fourth.
• Enforced Method Acting: Paul Verhoeven encouraged a rivalry between her and Gina Gershon on Showgirls to give their characters a natural animosity.
• Friendship on the Set: Her and Jennifer Beals became friends on the set of Rodger Dodger and remained so.
• Hostility on the Set: Overlapping with Romance on the Set, Mark-Paul Gosselaar dated her, Tiffani Thiessen and Lark Voorhees during Saved by the Bell's run, which led to some tension and a period where none of the three were speaking to each other.
• Star-Derailing Role: While she wasn't exactly a star, her attempts at transitioning into films crashed and burned when Showgirls bombed, and she took the majority of the blame for it. Her agent dropped her and other directors wouldn't cast her for a while. She did at least carve out a career in indie films, off-Broadway and TV guest spots, with a few notable supporting roles, such as The Curse of the Jade Scorpion and The First Wives Club.
• Throw It In!: She suggested Nomi mispronounce 'Versace' in Showgirls.
• What Could Have Been:
  • At one point, talks with her fell through about the lead in Showgirls, and a then-unknown Charlize Theron was in the running. Paul Verhoeven later said he was relieved the film didn't destroy her career. The two actresses ran into each other about a decade later and mused about what could have been.
  • She lobbied for the role of Gale Weathers in Scream (1996) but was turned down because she was still reeling from the backlash to Showgirls.