1. This movie was a unique Hollywood record-breaker.
Not only was Jerry Maguire a huge success for Tom Cruise, this movie shattered his previously standing record of having appeared in four consecutive movies to take in more than $100 million. Jerry Maguire made it official at five sequential box office smashes. Oddly enough, the role of Maguire was written for Tom Hanks, who has himself appeared in more than 20 100-plus-million-dollar movies (some way over that number) throughout his career.
2. A moral dilemma plays a role in the film.
Jerry Maguire (Cruise) is a sports agent, and being good at his job sometimes entails the use of less than admirable behavior. When a sports figure he is representing tells a kid that he can’t sign his baseball card because it is not the brand of card he endorses, Cruise experiences a moment of revelation that what he is doing isn’t always morally right, and expresses his new insight in a way that is too foreign to his ruthless associates, causing him to lose his job, and setting up the film’s premise.
3. This film grossed more than five times its original budget.
The estimated budget for Jerry Maguire was $50 million and it returned more than $270 million in total box office sales. Needless to say, co-producers James L. Brooks and Cameron Crowe (along with Tri-Star Pictures and others) were happy campers.
4. One of the actors is from a show business family.
Cuba Gooding, Jr. is not the only member of his family that is comfortable in the spotlight. His dad, Cuba Gooding, was the lead singer for the rhythm and blues group The Main Ingredient, who had a 1972 Top 10 hit with “Everybody Plays the Fool.” His mother was also on stage, as Shirley Temple Sullivan, as a backup singer for The Sweethearts before Junior was born. There has been talk about a movie version of Cuba’s family story tentatively titled, Everybody Plays the Pool: The Cuba Gooding Story.
5. The female lead was briefly married to a popular entertainer.
Renee Zellwegger, who played Jerry’s devoted assistant Dorothy, and Tennessee-born country singer Kenny Chesney were married in May of 2005. Their marriage, sad to say, did not have the longevity of the hit movie, coming to an end seven months later…talk about your May-December romances!
6. The writer, director and producer of this movie are one and the same.
Co-producer Cameron Crowe also wrote and directed Jerry Maguire, spending almost four years honing his script. According to director Crowe, Jerry’s mission statement in the film when he’s ousted from his job, was influenced directly by Jeffrey Katzenberg’s discourse after leaving his tenure at Disney.
During the time Crowe started his screenplay and through the years it took to top it off, his first choice of lead actor was Tom Hanks. However, after three and a half years, Hanks got older and then seemed to Crowe not as right for the Maguire role as previously envisioned. Coincidentally, Hanks had just come off of winning two successive Best Actor Oscars for Philadelphia (1993) and Forrest Gump (1994) and by that time was already involved producing and directing That Thing You Do! the same year Jerry Maguire got under way.
Crowe, a true wordsmith, is also adept at letting his players ad lib when the scene dictates. The banter between Jerry (Tom Cruise) and Dorothy’s young son Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki) when they first talk in the living room is totally ad-libbed. In order to get the sincere feeling he wanted from his actors, Crowe did not write dialogue for this scene, and it pays off. Audiences see that first-time actor Lipnicki can hold his own against the excellent performances of the film’s accomplished cast.
Nevertheless, Jonathan Lipnicki did figure into the dialogue. Then six years old, one day during filming, Lipnicki expressed his knowledge by telling fellow cast members that, “the human head weighs eight pounds.” Apparently, Cameron Crowe liked it enough to add it into the script.
7. A major sport has something to do with the plot.
Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character Rod Tidwell is a wide receiver for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. He is nearing the end of his contract and is one of only two former clients who stay with Jerry after he is sacked from his job as a sports agent; the other client Maguire was able to keep was Frank Cushman (Jerry O’Connell), who eventually double-crosses Jerry, leaving Tidwell as the one and only…hence the memorable “Show me the money!” scene.
Gridiron greats of the past and present weave their way in and out of the storyline, and although football is written all over this movie, it is much more than a “football movie.” Writer-director Cameron Crowe can be credited for a movie that packs comedy, romance, drama, excitement, tenderness, sports action, and some downright unscrupulous behavior into it’s 139-minute running time.
8. The movie won one of the major Academy Awards.
Although Jamie Foxx had once auditioned for the role of Rod Tidwell, director Crowe signed Cuba Gooding, Jr. Maybe he saw what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences saw when they awarded Gooding with the statue for Best Supporting Actor. On Oscar Night, Gooding’s acceptance speech may contain the most uses of the words “I love you” in Oscar history.
9. Many real people played themselves in the movie.
Lots of real-life sports figures are on display strutting their stuff as they parade through Jerry Maguire. Look for sports commentator Roy Firestone, Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeff Lurie, Dallas Cowboys QB Troy Aikman, along with his real agent Leigh Steinberg (who, incidentally, is said to have been the model for Jerry Maguire). Steinberg’s former partner supposedly used some of the underhanded dealings seen in the film employed by the Bob Sugar character played by Jay Mohr. Some say Mohr’s role is also somewhat based on sports agent Drew Rosenhaus, who was known for similar tactics. By the way, Rosenhaus also has a cameo in the film.
Sharp-eyed viewers will also find wide receiver Michael Irvin, quarterback Drew Bledsoe, coaches Richie Kotite and Wayne Fontes, Football Hall of Famers Frank Gifford, Dan Dierdorf and Art Monk…and the list goes on and on.
10. At least two lines from the film are now considered classics.
Former NFL defensive back Tim MacDonald also plays himself in Jerry Maguire, but his cameo has a little more credence, since it is MacDonald who is credited with coming up with the film’s great catch phrase, “Show me the money!” from his days on the Arizona Cardinals.
Renee Zellweger spoke another now-famous line, “You had me from hello,” which inspired the 1999 Kenny Chesney single of the same name.
The line, “You complete me” is also oft-quoted and credited to the movie and can be considered a bona fide Maguire-ism, but it is questionable if that is actually what is said in the movie. The scene takes place in the elevator when Tom and Renee see a man signing to his lady love and Renee explains the man said, “You complete me.” However, there is some discrepancy about the actual phrasing, since in American Sign Language, words are spoken in order and what seems to some is that the man was signing in Pidgin Sign, actually signing, “You make me feel whole.” Do any FanFare readers know what is actually signed on screen?
