Swingers turns 30 this week, and the small buddy comedy still gets talked about because it changed several careers at once. Directed by Doug Liman and written by Jon Favreau, it follows single, unemployed actors living on the “eastside” of Hollywood, California, during the 1990s swing revival. It stars Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Ron Livingston, Patrick Van Horn, Alex Désert, and Heather Graham.
A critical and commercial hit, the film helped propel Favreau, Vaughn, Graham, and Livingston to stardom. Here are eight things you did not know.
“Funny, heartfelt, and effortlessly cool, Swingers made stars out of Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau, and established Doug Liman as a director to watch.” — Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus
Trent was almost a woman
While Favreau was trying to raise production money, some producers wanted to change the character of Trent to a woman, skip Las Vegas, and make the film darker and more violent. Others wanted to cast more notable actors like Johnny Depp or Chris O’Donnell. Favreau declined those ideas.
The script began as a two-week exercise
Favreau wrote the screenplay for Swingers in about two weeks. His father had given him a screenwriting program on a computer and he wanted to see if he could make a screenplay “just as an exercise”. He had moved from Chicago and had also broken up with his girlfriend there, but the stories and events he wrote in were fictional.
The title came from a coffee shop
The film’s title was partly inspired by the Swingers Diner on Beverly Boulevard, a coffee shop that Liman and Favreau frequented. The later release coincided with the 1990s swing revival, but the diner is where the name started.
“You’re so money” started with Michael Jordan
The “you’re so money” catchphrase that the film popularized originated from a television commercial with Spike Lee and Michael Jordan in which Lee called Jordan “money”. Some of the slang used in the film became popular in the years following its release, especially the word “money” as a catch-all term of approval or quality.
The answering machine scene came from Jeff Garlin
The phone call answering machine scene originated from a comedy bit by Jeff Garlin. In the finished film, Mike leaves a series of increasingly desperate messages on Nikki’s answering machine before she tells him never to call her again.
Music licensing cost more than the shoot
More money was spent on music licensing than for the film itself. Much of the film was shot using short ends, which meant many of the scenes could be filmed for about 60 seconds. Liman planned to shoot about 18 days with about 12 pages per day.
Mikey’s apartment was Favreau’s real home
Mikey’s apartment is located in the Franklin Village area of Los Angeles, a few miles from the Dresden Room, and it was Favreau’s real-life apartment at the time. Favreau also used his 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente convertible, which he had bought after his previous car had been stolen and stripped.
Spielberg found Vaughn through the Jaws music
A copy of Swingers was sent to Steven Spielberg so the filmmakers could clear the rights for the Jaws music. Spielberg then cast Vince Vaughn in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Big Bad Voodoo Daddy also credits much of their later music success to their appearance in the film.
From a two-week script to a $5 million Miramax sale, Swingers is a reminder that small films can change careers. Which of these eight facts surprised you most?
Facts from Wikipedia: Swingers (1996 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.