Often considered one of the best comedies of the ‘90s, Tommy Boy is a movie with no shortage of great actors giving iconic and outrageous-yet-hilarious performances. That includes Bo Derek, who famously played Beverly Burns-Barish, Chris Farley’s on-screen step-mother who tried to take Callahan Auto for all it was worth. However, it turns out that the 10 star wasn’t the first choice for the part.
I recently sat down with Derek to talk all about Tommy Boy, which celebrates its 30th anniversary on March 30th, and in the middle of our chat, she told me a behind-the-scenes story I’ve never heard before. Basically, as Derek put it, she didn’t get the part until right before the start of shooting:
I wasn't cast until the last minute. I don't know who dropped out in Beverly's part, but I was in Hong Kong. I got a call and flew all night to Toronto and then shot the next morning. So who knows? And no one would tell me still to this day. No one tells me. There are rumors of who was cast as that part, but I still don't know who it was.
The actress, who also appeared in movies like Fantasies, Tarzan, the Ape Man, and Malibu’s Most Wanted, didn’t disclose any specifics about the person who was originally supposed to play the character, but she was still intrigued by what had gone down, even 30-plus years after filming.
We got on the topic of this last-minute casting change after I asked if her first scene in Tommy Boy – the one where she slowly walks out of the pool to meet Tommy Callahan III and reveals she was marrying his father (played by the late Brian Dennehy) – was meant to have a reference to 10. Though she didn’t know for sure, Derek did still laugh about it and told CinemaBlend:
You know, I've never asked anyone that specific question, but I know when I read it, I had a feeling it was slipped in one night. They cast me and it always got a good laugh every time I saw it with people.
In fact, the legendary pool sequence was actually the first thing Derek filmed after taking over the role of Beverly from the mystery actress. She told me it was early in the morning and she was jet-lagged but: “that’s our business.”
It all worked out, as Derek got to share the screen with one of the funniest comedians of all time, and the moment has gone on to live in the hearts of audiences for the past several decades.
This is just one of the great stories I’ve heard from those involved with Tommy Boy. Previously, director Peter Segal told me about the real-life stories that made it into the film’s script after he and screenwriter Fred Wolfe had to change up the script as well as the time a physical comedy scene got a little too real on set.
If you want to revisit this classic moment and so many other unforgettable Tommy Boy scenes ahead of the film’s 30th anniversary, you can stream it with an AMC+ subscription or on physical media, including a recently released 4K Blu-ray set.
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