It’s hard to believe that it’s been more than 30 years since the release of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off . No matter how much time has passed, it remains as relevant and popular as it ever was .
Below are 10+ Ferris Bueller’s Day Off behind the scenes secrets that fans didn’t know. So fire up your Ferrari and get ready to break down the fourth wall!
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1. John Hughes pitched the film in a single sentence.
“I called Ned Tanen and said, ‘I want to do this movie about a kid who takes a day off from school and…that’s all I know so far.’ Ned knows me and so he said ‘Aw, go ahead.’ So I went ahead.”
2. The first draft of the script was written in only four days!
According to an interview given by John Hughes , he claims that “it takes me about four days to write one of these things.”
Hughes was known to write for upwards of 20 hours at a time!
3. Ben Stein knew what he was talking about.
Who could forget Ben Stein’s iconic “Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?” It makes the film!
Before Ben broke into acting he had a completely different job. He was a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Nixon and Ford!
4. Matthew Broderick wasn’t able to do most of the choreography for the parade scene.
Unfortunately, he had injured his knee while filming the climactic scene that shows him running through the neighbor’s backyards. As Matthew recalls, “I was pretty sore .”
You still dance better than I do, Matthew.
5. Matthew Broderick had a hard time adjusting to John Hughes’ frantic style of film making.
”It was pretty disturbing at first,” Matthew said. ”John would say, ‘let’s try this instead.”’
Prior to that time, Broderick had appeared mainly in stage productions where the script is the law.
6. There’s a reason why Cameron wears a Red Wings jersey in Illinois.
Alan Ruck said that Hughes:
“Decided that Cameron had a horrible relationship with his father, but a great relationship with his grandfather, who lived in Detroit and would take Cameron to Red Wings games. That’s all it was, and it was never explained in the movie.”
7. Paul McCartney wasn’t a fan of the parade scene.
More specifically, he didn’t like the version of “Twist And Shout” that was used in the film.
According to Sir Paul, there was just too much brass bleeding through for his liking.
8. Charlie Sheen stayed up for two days straight in order to appear genuinely wasted.
Taking a look at Charlie’s track record, he more than likely would have ended up staying awake for two days straight, even if it wasn’t for a movie.
9. According to Anthony Michael Hall, John Hughes originally wanted him to play Ferris.
“It was, I think, upsetting for him,” Hall says candidly.
“It wasn’t a spiteful thing on my part or anything, it was more that I was moving on to new work and new opportunities.”
10. No, the Ferrari wasn’t real. But the replica still sold for an incredibly high amount at auction.
Thankfully, no Ferraris were actually harmed during the making of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off .
And though it’s true that they weren’t real, one of the replicas still managed to fetch an astounding $235,000 at auction.
11. Robert Smith of The Cure wrote an instrumental track for the museum scene that was never actually used.
Sadly, due to a severe argument that terminated the working relationship of John Hughes and music director David Anderle , Hughes lost the rights to the track.
12. Jennifer Grey put on a disguise so that she could dance in the parade scene.
“I went to Hair and Makeup and I had them secretly do this bouffant wig , like a beehive hairdo, and I went to a five-and-dime store and bought a hilarious outfit. I looked like a crazy autograph hound.”
13. Emilio Estevez at one time was being considered for the part of Cameron.
Hughes even went so far as to offer him the part!
However, Emilio declined the role. I guess even the Brat Pack had to grow up sometime!
14. It wasn’t a very good or memorable time for Mia Sara.
“It was disorienting for me. I wish I could say that it was a really good experience, but it really wasn’t, mostly because of myself at that age. I was seventeen – and it was like having the most awkward year of your adolescence forever solidified.”
15. Alan Ruck and Matthew Broderick were already good friends before filming began.
“We were easy with each other, and we shared a particular sense of humor,” Matthew recalls. “So it just worked. We shared the same trailer. He had a teeny trailer, and I had a huge one, so right away he moved into mine.”
16. Edie McClurg had the go-ahead to improvise as much as she wanted.
When asked if John Hughes allowed her to improvise in the movie, she replied,
“Oh, yes. He was so wonderful. He just said, ‘Go.’ And I would lay it out. And he’d say, ‘Okay’or ‘Not so much.’ His approach was always very, very giving.”
“And I was so pleased because most other directors would just say, ‘No.’ It was always just ‘no, no, no, no, no.’ So it was really wonderful to work with someone who could say yes.”
“I’d come up with something I thought was funny and he’d say, ‘Okay, go ahead and do that.’ I just loved it. I loved it so much.”
17. Ferris’ parents actually got married in real life!
But either way, it’s interesting to know that this movie helped some couples find love, no matter how fleeting it may have been. You can’t stop love!
18. Ben Stein compared the movie to *Gone With The Wind*.
“This is to comedies what Gone with the Wind is to epics,” Stein said . “It will never die, because it responds to, and calls forth such human emotions. It isn’t dirty. There’s nothing mean-spirited about it.”
“There’s nothing sneering or sniggering about it. It’s just wholesome. We want to be free. We want to have a good time.”
“We know we’re not going to be able to all our lives. We know we’re going to have to buckle down and work.”
“We know we’re going to have to eventually become family men and women, and have responsibilities and pay our bills.”
“But just give us a couple of good days that we can look back on.”
19. Matthew Broderick improvised the clarinet scene.
Honestly, improvised scenes tend to be the best of all the scenes in my opinion, and this one is definitely no exception.
Now that you know he “never had one lesson,” it makes the whole scene even more interesting!
Do you know any other interesting behind the scenes secrets about *Ferris Bueller’s Day Off*?
Or were you pleasantly surprised by all of these facts?
Either way, let us know down below in the comments! We would love to hear from you!
