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ROGER KUMBLE (writer-director):It’s just a great story.
It’s got drama and comedy and tragedy, and you could’t do that so often these days.
Movies have to fit in abox.
You don’t know where to putCruel Intentionsin the aisle, you know?
Moritz immediately jumped on board, even though Kumble had never helmed a film.
(To put it inCruel Intentionsverbiage, he was a directing virgin.)
Roger’s voice was so fresh, I would have done anything to make the movie.
This certainly fit the bill.
KUMBLE:I had the arrogance of youth on my side.
[Laughs] Nowadays I’d be terrified!
I was not one of those kids who played with Super 8 cameras.
An ensemble of up-and-coming young actors quickly lined up to dive into the risky (and risque) material.
SARAH MICHELLE GELLAR (Kathryn Merteuil):My reps thought it was a terrible idea for me.
They were like, “You’reBuffy!
People have this great idea of youwhy shatter it?”
I was like, “That’s thepoint.”
I was a precocious 19- or 20-year-old who expected roles to be intelligentandstupidandbadandfunnyandover-the-top.
[This] elevated the material.
She really brought something so special to Cecile…
I feel like I can actually still picture her coming in and her audition outfit.
SELMA BLAIR (Cecile Caldwell):I was the oldest in the cast but newest to the industry.
I went in [for this], and Roger and I began this obnoxious banter.
He said, “How old areyou?”
and I was like, “How old are you?”
I wasn’t trying to cage around my age.
I was just sick of all these auditions.
[Laughs] He probably thought I was a nutball.
ANNE McCARTHY (co-casting director):Roger knew exactly who he wanted.
When you’re in our position, that’s really comforting.
And he’s just a lot of fun.
Everyone on the movie, the actors, the crew, the producersthey became a family.
I’m sure we discussed Jennifer Love Hewitt [for a role].
There are so many showsthe kids on Netflix, the kids on The CWit’s just a bigger universe.
Everybody that we wanted to do the movie ultimatelydidthe movie.
[Laughs] I remember alotof coercing.
The world hadn’t seenElection, but we knew how talented Reese was.
He just happened to be going out with her at the time.
PHILLIPPE:We drank a lot of wine.
[Laughs] We were wooing her!
She loved the movie forme, but it wasn’t a great part at the time for her.
She helped Roger turn it into one.
Annette was the character most removed from me.
Sebastian disrobes poolside to seduce Annette.
Kathryn teaches naive rival Cecile how to French-kiss.
Even supporting players wind up between the sheets.
PHILLIPPE:When [Kathryn] says, “you could put itanywhere”?
I’d known Ryan for years.
There was a comfort there that allowed us to push boundaries.
SEAN PATRICK THOMAS (Ronald Clifford):Roger was always throwing curveballs to heighten the kinkiness.
I was like, “Oh man,oh-kay!”
[Laughs] They need to donate his brain to science.
That was diving into the deep end.
[Laughs] But I was more concerned with making my character real.
You didn’t see a lot of gay characters, period.
PHILLIPPE:I felt okay with [showing] my butt.
Everybody has a butt, it’s really not that graphic.
[Laughs] Which Ineverdid.
BLAIR:I’d never kissed a girl before.
I remember I was like, “What if I really am ahorriblekisser?”
That poor Sarah, she looks so delicate, and then you just have thatGoliathin her mouth."
[Laughs]
GELLAR:AllIremember thinking was “I could kiss Selma all day!”
Her skin wasso soft.
My skin is really sensitive, so when I kiss on camera a lot, it gets raw.
KUMBLE:I got to revisit the movie a few years ago, when we put up the musical.
I was like, “Whoa, I don’t know if we should do this!”
With some of these scenes, I was like, “Oh myGod.”
It was another time, you know?
Not that that’s an excuse.
One of those scenes saw Sebastian luring Cecile over to his houseand blackmailing her into sex.
PHILLIPPE:At that age, it didn’t feel as lascivious.
I’m not sure I saw it the same way you would see it in retrospect.
GELLAR:What they’re doing to her ishorrible.
We could never make that scene today, let’s put it that way.
BLAIR:But Cecile enjoyed almost every moment of it!
She was so odd.
[Laughs] She wasn’t a shrinking violet.
She wasn’t upset.
She was almost delusional, for the better.
I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing… PHILLIPPE:I wassoactor-y back then and romanticizing going through torture to do good work.
And I was inlove.
[Laughs] [The offscreen relationship] certainly made things more real, or more intense.
You have a deeper connection.
WITHERSPOON:I hit him, and it upset him.
We wereyoung, and we just had heightened emotions.
But it was great.
It was a special time.
The Retribution
A brokenhearted Sebastian dies in an accident.
Because if that scene didn’t work, then what’s the point?
BLAIR:I was scared to give her that book in real life.
I thought I would trip on my way toKathryn, even though I trustSarah.
KUMBLE:When I originally wrote it, it was smaller.
It was set in a room with Annette and Kathryn, and it just didn’t have thatoomph.
Heather pushed me to give it a bigger ending.
LIEBERMAN:She had to be publicly shamed.
The crux of the movie is from a teenager’s point of view, right?
At that age, your reputation is the most important thing.
Things feel so big, so that public persona she worked so hard to cultivate needed to be shattered.
KUMBLE:I wrote the ending to that song because it just aligned perfectly.
And then we found out it’s the Rolling Stones.
We could not findanythingeven close to it.
It was well worth it.
The film didn’t dominate the box office when it was first released.
In fact, its R rating meant younger moviegoers often snuck in.
KUMBLE:I was hearing that it was supposed to do better than it did.
We didn’t win the weekend…
It was an epidemic that weekend of kids sneaking into theaters to seeCruel Intentions.
KUMBLE:The movie, it took time, you know?
I’ve never had the benefit of a big win opening weekend.
But [it’s] standing the test of time, so it’s great.
We werealltrying to navigate how to have serious acting careers and still take advantage of that.
I was so young, I didn’t knowwhatI wanted to do with my life.
[Laughs] Ryan and I had Ava in 1999, so I was probably talking about mom things.
I was doing the best I could to raise a little girl.
GELLAR:It was all a letdown [afterward].
[Laughs] This was such a perfect experience on every level.
The material was so elevated, the cast was so ridiculously talented…
It was all in a bubble.
I’m like, “I’m pretty fun in that!”
WITHERSPOON:We all had a moment when that play came out.
This guy’s soul is saved.
That’s what I think resonates.
LIEBERMAN:Except at the very end, you never see them in their uniforms.
WITHERSPOON:It’s a piece of classic literature about how people manipulate each other.
I’m sure there could be some new iteration of it with new people.
It’s just about somebody who’s imaginative, like Roger, coming up with an idea.
PHILLIPPE:In the era of social media, the GIFs people use from the movie keep it alive.
You really appreciate that stuff as you get older and you have so many disappointing experiences in the industry.
That’s the holy grail.
It’s a story that endures, and peopledostill act that way.
They just don’t want people to know about it.
“Everybody does it, it’s just that nobody talks about it.”
BLAIR:Yes,exactly!
[Laughs] You were on the pulse.
