Trivia / The Craft

• Ability over Appearance: Rochelle was originally white. When Rachel True was cast, her major conflict became racism.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Rochelle getting bullied about her race was written when Rachel True was cast. Likewise, because Rachel wears her hair natural and has wanted to avoid straightening it, they threw in a line where Laura Lizzie taunts her about her hair.
  • It was also Rachel's idea for Rochelle to look conflicted when she sees Laura Lizzie's hair falling out.
  • Filmmakers had yet to find the right actor to play Chris, so Robin Tunney suggested her friend Skeet Ulrich that she knew from New York. Initially reluctant to cast him, they gave him the role at the last minute.
• Breakaway Pop Hit: Love Spit Love's cover of "How Soon Is Now" by The Smiths is infinitely more recognisable these days and was eventually picked as the theme song for Charmed. Many would be surprised to learn that it was recorded for this movie.
• Cast the Expert: While, despite rumors, Fairuza Balk wasn't actually a Wiccan herself, she did purchase an occult shop in the course of researching her role, and was able to serve as a consultant on Wiccan and neopagan practices on the film. She was also able to point the filmmakers to contacts who could help them in areas she could not.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Inverted. Robin Tunney was auditioning for the supporting role of Bonnie, but producers liked her audition so much, they bumped her up to the lead role of Sarah.
• Contractual Purity: Fairuza Balk at the time had an edgy, rebellious reputation - and Rachel True claims she was warned by her people to not associate with her out of fear that she'd get fired (as Fairuza would be able to get away with a lot more because she was white).
• The Danza: Almost. Rachel True plays Rochelle.
• Dawson Casting: All the girls, but special mention should go to Rachel True, who was almost 30 when she played Rochelle (though she certainly didn't look that old). She was nearly turned down for being too old but she lobbied for the part anyway.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Bonnie's treatment isn't working, so she has Sarah cast a spell to fix it. It's then that Bonnie's scars disappear.
  • One before the girls' Face–Heel Turn on Sarah. Sarah tries to convince Bonnie and Rochelle to cast a binding spell. However Nancy intimidates them and chews them out. It would also be revealed that Rochelle is the only black girl in the school and she's been ostracised by everyone as a result. This makes their sudden change in character a lot less jarring. Word of God is that he felt Nancy came down too hard on all the girls - as this scene took place before Chris's death and he wondered why they'd stay friends with her after it. Also he felt it cheapened the drama of the scene in the bathroom.
  • During the climax, Sarah gets into a car with Nancy who stabs her with an athame but it turns out to be an illusion.
• Enforced Method Acting: The film was shot mostly in chronological order to get a natural progression from the actresses.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The filmmakers intended to get a PG-13 rating and followed all the guidelines for it - minimal gore, cursing, nudity - but it was still given an R-rating because it features teenagers dealing with witchcraft. They even tried to appeal to the MPAA that it was Wicca and neopaganism as opposed to black magic, but they wouldn't budge. That the girls were all being played by actresses in their early-late twenties rather than actual teenagers adds to the absurdity of it all.
  • Robin Tunney had shaved her head for Empire Records and was still growing her hair out - so the studio insisted she wear a wig. This became a Mythology Gag in the sequel, where Lily, Sarah's replacement character, has her hair in a short, boyish cut, despite being easily the most feminine of the new four.
• Fake American: Nancy's mother Grace is played by Canadian actress Helen Shaver. Also, Canadian-born Neve Campbell as the presumably American Bonnie.
• Fandom Life Cycle: Sits at Stage 6a these days. It was an unexpectedly big hit when it was first released in 1996, possibly reaching Stage 3, but it didn't manage to become as deeply ingrained in pop culture as similar works like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (although The Craft's initial success paved the way for young adult urban fantasy). Chances are if you were an adolescent in the 1990's or are into urban fantasy, you'll have at least heard of it, but it's more obscure outside of this. Before its release, the sequel was theorized to generate renewed interest in the film, but turned out to be a flop, setting the original back to cult status (although it did lead to some people either revisiting The Craft or watching it for the first time).
• Genre Popularizer: The film really helped boost the popularity of the Urban Fantasy genre and Dark Fantasy aimed at teens; while these genres existed prior to the film, they were pretty niche. The popularity skyrocketed following the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed (1998), which first aired in 1997 and 1998, respectively, while The Craft was released in 1996.
• I Am Not Spock:
  • Robin Tunney claims that she still gets recognised as "that girl from The Craft", despite having done other notable films like Empire Records, Vertical Limit and TV shows like Prison Break and The Mentalist. Hell, she was still addressed as "that girl from The Craft" when attending fan meetings of The Mentalist.
  • Rachel True is heavily associated with Rochelle. The majority of interviews are about The Craft.
• Life Imitates Art: Rachel True got into tarot reading after starring in the film.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: During the scene where the girls perform a ritual on the beach, allegedly, the tide rose unexpectedly high and fast, destroying the set. Immediately after completing the scene, a local power grid blew for no apparent reason, knocking out power for several miles around. Coincidence? Probably, although the production did have a real witch as a consultant to guide the actresses through the ritual scene.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The trailer refers to the school as "St Bernard's Academy" when the film depicts it as St Benedict's. It also depicts a clip from a scene in a field where Sarah is topless and Rochelle rubs something on her back, as well as an alternate shot from where Nancy is disguised as Sarah and making out with Chris.
• Playing Against Type: Robin Tunney was surprised when producers asked her to play Sarah - saying she viewed herself as a character actress and didn't think she could play "the Ingenue lead". Indeed Bonnie or Nancy would be closer to her usual type at the time, while she was initially auditioning for Bonnie's part.
• Playing with Character Type: Bonnie initially starts off like Neve Campbell's usual characters in the 90s — a meek Shrinking Violet. Then, halfway through, she becomes vain, conceited, and kind of nasty.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: Fairuza Balk was assumed to be a Wiccan for years (not helped by one of the producers reporting her as such on the DVD special features). She just owned an occult shop for a while.
• Real-Life Relative: The three little blonde girls on the bus as the witches sit across from them are the producer's daughters.
• Real Life Writes the Hairstyle:
  • Robin Tunney wears a wig throughout the movie as she'd shaved her head for Empire Records and didn't have time to grow her hair back.
  • Rachel True had also recently had to cut most of her hair off due to breakage. She had previously sported long braids in Embrace of the Vampire (1995).
• Reality Subtext:
  • Subverted. Fairuza Balk, the actress who plays Nancy, was the subject of many rumors claiming that she was a Wiccan in real life, especially when she bought an occult shop during filming. She eventually set the record straight in 2017 — she bought the shop because, in the course of doing research for the role, she befriended the store's owner who wanted to retire, which got spun into rumors that she bought it because she was herself a practicing witch.
  • Sarah is the one who helps cast the spell to make Laura Lizzie's hair fall out - resulting in her having to wear a wig. Robin Tunney was actually wearing a wig for this film - as she had shaved her head for Empire Records.
  • Rachel True grew up in a middle class neighborhood that was majority white, like her character Rochelle.
• Referenced by...: Little Mix's music video for "Black Magic" has several references to this movie, such as the plot revolving around four misfit girls who use magic to better their lives, one of them casting a love spell on a popular boy, the antagonist being a stuck-up blonde girl and the girls sitting in a circle and holding hands surrounded by candles to perform spells. The scene where Perrie turns her hair purple by running her hands through it is identical to the scene in The Craft where Sarah uses a glamour to turn herself blonde.
• Sleeper Hit: The film unexpectedly managed to earn $55.7 million on a budget of only $15 million. Such a dark film for teens hadn't really been done before, and Urban Fantasy hadn't quite broken into the mainstream at the time (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed weren't airing yet). The Craft was both a horror/fantasy film and primarily aimed at teenage girls, with the creators not even being entirely certain who to market the film to; it didn't help that the movie was given an R-rating due to its premise despite the creators' efforts to meet the guidelines for PG-13. It ended up being an suprisingly big hit, especially amongst young women (and was particularly popular in the goth and punk scene) and retains a cult following to this day.
• Stillborn Franchise:
  • A sequel and pilot for a potential spin-off series were talked about but neither were picked up. Word of God is that none of the original girls would appear and "it was the school without those girls. It was the legacy of what those four girls had done at the school". Rachel True suspects Charmed's sudden success prevented any sequels from being made.
  • There were plans to release a direct-to-DVD sequel focusing on Nancy. However, those plans were dropped for unknown reasons. This was finally subverted in 2020, when it got a stand-alone sequel, The Craft: Legacy.
• Those Two Actors: Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich also starred together in Scream (1996). Breckin Meyer, who stars in this, was also the runner-up for Randy in Scream before Jamie Kennedy got the role.
• Throw It In!:
  • During the "calling the corners" scene, while the camera was spinning around, a wave rolled in from the shore and wiped out the fire. The take is used in the final film.
  • At the end of the levitation scene, when Rochelle falls to the floor, Rachel True ad-libbed "you gotta try this."
• Typecasting: Fairuza Balk would play similar wild and dark characters in American History X, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996) and The Waterboy too.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The original script was much darker and focused on the occult part of the plot, with horror bits playing the first fiddle. Studio quickly got afraid it wouldn't fly with the MPAA rating system, not to mention being hard to market as a teen movie, leading to many changes. The film got an R anyway, leaving it to speculations how different it would be when not hardlining for PG-13 restrictions.
  • Rochelle's trauma was also originally that she was bulimic and anorexic. A scene was also shot with Rochelle's parents - who Rachel True describes as "stodgy" - but cut from the film.
  • Then-unknown actresses Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson and Alicia Silverstone all read for Sarah. Both Angelina and Alicia had to pass on the role due to scheduling conflicts.
  • Holly Marie Combs was in the running for the role of Bonnie. Had she been cast, it would have reunited her with Dr Giggles costar, Cliff De Young. Ironically, she would eventually star in Charmed (1998), which was also an Urban Fantasy about witches and even featured the same "How Soon Is Now?" as a title song.
• Word of God:
  • The early draft of the script says that only Sarah is the one with any real powers, and that the other three are just leeching off her magic. It's unclear if this still applies in the actual movie.
  • The director also confirms which of the four elements each girl represents - Sarah is Earth because she is the most grounded, Bonnie is Air because she sees things others don't, Rochelle is Water because of her love for swimming, and Nancy is Fire because she is passionate and unpredictable.
• Write What You Know: The light levitation scene and the part where Nancy runs a light were based on incidents from John Fleming's life.

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