Trivia / Spy Hard

• Creator Backlash: Marcia Gay Harden hated doing this film, mostly blaming it on the chaotic filming and how the actors on set who weren't Leslie Nielsen were treated badly, and says that she hasn't watched the entire movie in full to this day.
• Dawson Casting: Leslie Nielsen plays Dick Steele at the ages of 37 and 52. Nielsen was 70 at the time of filming.
• Fake Nationality: British actress Nicollette Sheridan as French-Russian spy Veronique Ukrinsky.
• Follow the Leader: Followed the spy movie parody genre - which is odd because James Bond never took itself seriously anyway.
• Playing Against Type: Andy Griffith as a supervillain— albeit he played far worse characters in the films Savages, Pray for the Wildcats and Murder in Coweta County, though he's generally known for his friendly roles. Part of it is down to Griffith's discomfort at the experience of playing Lonesome Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd way back in 1957, which led him to avoid villainous characters for the vast majority of his career.
• Wag the Director: The final screenplay for the film was supposedly thrown together hastily by Leslie Nielsen, Rick Friedberg and another writer, after Nielsen had serious issues with the original screenplay that Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer had written. This probably accounts for the somewhat disjointed nature of the final product.
• What Could Have Been: Elizabeth Hurley was up for the role of Veronique Ukrinsky. She would later co-star in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, another James Bond spoof.

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