Trivia / Pump Up the Volume

• California Doubling: The movie is set in Phoenix, Arizona, but was filmed in California.
• Cast Incest: Jamie and Janie, two relatively minor characters who are dating, are played by first cousins Ahmet Zappa and Lala Stoatman.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Samantha Mathis dyed her blonde hair black for her character.
• Similarly Named Works: This 1990 movie title with M|A|R|R|S 1987 hit "Pump up the Volume". There is no connection between the two - the song does not appear in the movie.
  • Likewise the series Pump Up The Volume, about the origins of house music.
• Star-Making Role: For Samantha Mathis.
• Wag the Director: Christian Slater disagreed with Allan Moyle who wanted to bring in a tap dance instructor to help orchestrate a scene that begins with "Hard Harry" faking masturbation on the air and ends with him breaking into a manic dance by himself. Slater wanted to do something more spontaneous based on his instincts.
• What Could Have Been: Allan Moyle initially wanted to cast John Cusack as Mark Hunter, but Cusack turned down the role, as he didn't want to play another high school student following his role in Say Anything....
• Write What You Know: The school in the film, Hubert Humphrey High, was based on a Montreal high school where Allan Moyle's sister used to teach that, according to Moyle, had a principal "who had a pact with the staff to enhance the credibility of the school scholastically at the expense of the students who were immigrants or culturally disabled in some way or another."

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