Trivia / Lords of Dogtown

• Box Office Bomb: Made only half of its small $25 million budget.
• Cast the Expert: Emile Hirsch had some experience as a street skater beforehand.
• Creator-Chosen Casting: The real Skip wanted Heath Ledger to play him.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Jay Adams was thirteen when he first became a skater. Emile Hirsch turned eighteen around the time the film was made.
  • Victor Rasuk was twenty playing Tony at fifteen.
  • John Robinson was likewise twenty when Stacy was fifteen.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • The actors practiced for hours every day months before filming began to convincingly portray street skaters. They performed most of the stunts themselves, with only a few dangerous stunts performed by pro skaters.
  • Emile Hirsch shaved his head on screen when Jay does the same.
• Executive Meddling: Jay shouting at the old women from the car was under constant meddling from the censors. The scripted insult was "grey beaver", and it had to be re-shot several times - with Emile Hirsch using a different insult each time. The one that got approved was "vintage ass" because 'vintage' had a positive connotation to it. They actually made something of a joke out of it; after the film was approved, they sent a thank you gift to Catherine Hardwicke. A pair of shorts with 'vintage' printed on them.
• Fake American: Heath Ledger (Australian) as Skip.
• Production Posse: Nikki Reed had worked with Catherine Hardwicke on Thirteen (2003) and again on Twilight.
• Reality Subtext: Catherine Hardwicke had grown up on Venice Beach and knew many of the Z-Boys personally.
• What Could Have Been:
  • David Fincher was originally going to direct, from a script by Roger Avary. Both lost enthusiasm for the project and moved on, but just imagine what those two could have done with the story.
  • When David Fincher was attached, his first choice for Skip was Donal Logue.
  • Lindsay Lohan was attached early on, playing a love interest for Tony. She had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, and her character was eventually dropped from the script.

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