Britney Spears inspired Hilary Duff’s role in A Cinderella Story

Although it is difficult to imagine anyone other than Hilary Duff featuring in A Cinderella Story 20 years after its release, it was another pop princess who was initially considered for the lead role in the film.

“I remember very well that I was on a train and I had the cover of Rolling stone magazine that Britney Spears “The first film she did was quite controversial because she was so young and it was very sexualised,” the film’s screenwriter said. Leigh Dunlapsaid Insider TV in an interview published Tuesday, July 16. “I wrote it with her in mind at that moment.”

Given that the film was made only a few years after Spears’ 1999 cover — which showed her lying on a bed in a black bra and polka-dot pajama shorts — Dunlap and the film’s crew had to look elsewhere for their heroine.

“Over the years, she had become a huge star, and it didn’t matter anymore,” Dunlap said of Spears, 42.

Duff, 36, finally landed the role of modern-day Cinderella Samantha “Sam” Montgomery, marking her first breakout role after the conclusion of her Disney Channel series. Lizzie McGuire“We finally found the right girl,” Dunlap said.

A Cinderella Story follows Sam as she dreams of attending Princeton University to escape life with her self-centered stepmother and stepsisters, played by Jennifer Coolidge, Madeleine Zima And Andrea Avery Rayrespectively. At a school Halloween dance, she discovers that her online pen pal is none other than the captain of the football team, Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray). Rather than losing a shoe, Sam loses his cell phone while fleeing the dance to return to his late father’s restaurant before curfew.

As Sam plans to reveal her identity to Austin at the right time, she is unmasked at a school assembly by her stepsisters and Austin’s evil ex, Shelby (Julie Gonzalo). This revelation leads to one of the film’s most memorable moments, in which Sam calls out to Austin in the boys’ locker room, uttering the iconic line, “Waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought, pointless and disappointing.”

According to Dunlap, this scene was one of the most difficult to do. “We had to rewrite it a lot because we went into production so quickly,” she explains. “They brought in other writers to write stuff. This scene took on a lot of forms because it was the main scene in the movie. It was something that we all worked on a lot.”

A favorite phrase of Dunlap’s is the line “Sam’s father” (Hubley Whip) shared with her — “Never let the fear of failure stop you from playing the game” — which ultimately motivates Sam to stand up to his stepmother.

As the film celebrated its 20th anniversary, Dunlap said she was “excited” to see A Cinderella Story The film still holds a special place in the hearts of fans. “When you write something and someone tells you that it means something to you, it’s the best feeling in the world. It means so much. It means the world to me,” she gushed. “I can’t believe it’s been 20 years and new people are discovering it. Older people are rediscovering it. It’s so cool that someone is literally sitting on a Delta plane watching the movie. It’s really cool.”

A Cinderella Story also played Regina King, Dan Byrd, Simon Helberg, Brad Bufanda, Mary Pat Gleason And Lin Shayeamong others. Murray, 42, wished the film a “happy 20th anniversary” via his Instagram Story on Tuesday, reposting photos of Austin and Sam’s dance scene on Edwin McCain” I will be. “

The original has spawned several spin-off films: the 2008 Another Cinderella Story featuring Selena Gomez2011 A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song featuring Lucy Hale2016 A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits featuring Sofia Carson2019 A Cinderella Story: The Christmas Wish featuring Laura Marano and 2021 A Cinderella Story: Starstruck featuring Bailee Madison.