She initially considered Arsenio Hall for the character of Mike, but says that Hall was uncomfortable about playing a gay-themed role. She made a conscious effort to cast people of color for minor roles, in an effort to combat what she describes as "racism at every level of making movies."įrom the beginning, Babbit intended the characters of Mike (played by RuPaul), Dolph (Dante Basco) and Andre (Douglas Spain) to be African American, Asian and Hispanic, respectively. An unnamed actress wanted to play the part, but she eventually turned it down due to religious beliefs she did not want her family to see her face on the poster.īabbit briefly considered Rosario Dawson as Megan, but her executive producer persuaded her that Dawson (who is Hispanic) would not be right for the All-American character. Lyonne was not the first choice for the role of Megan. She had seen and enjoyed Babbit's short film, "Sleeping Beauties" and was eager to work with the director. Lyonne first saw the script in the back of DuVall's car and subsequently contacted her agent about it. She says that she was able to get a lot of the cast through DuVall, including Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey.
The external shots of the colorful house complete with a bright pink rail fence were filmed in Palmdale, California.īabbit recruited Clea DuVall (who had starred in her short film, "Sleeping Beauties") to play the role of Graham Eaton. There is a progression from the organic world of Megan's hometown, where the dominant colors are orange and brown, to the fake world of True Directions, dominated by intense blues and pinks (which are intended to show the artificiality of gender construction).Īccording to Babbit, the germaphobic character of Mary Brown represents AIDS paranoia and her clean, ordered world is filled with plastic flowers, fake sky and PVC outfits. She wanted the production and costume design to reflect the themes of the story. He has said that he wanted to make a film that would not only entertain people, but also make people get angry and talk about the issues it raised.īabbit says that her influences for the look and feel of the film included John Waters, David LaChapelle, " Edward Scissorhands" and Barbie. Peterson had experience with reparative therapy while working at a prison clinic for sex offenders. Not feeling qualified to write the script herself, Babbit brought in screenwriter and recent graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts Brian Wayne Peterson. She also wanted to satirize both the religious right and the gay community. the pinnacle of the American dream, and the American dream of femininity."īabbit wanted the film to represent the lesbian experience from the femme perspective to contrast with several films of the time that represented the butch perspective (for example, Go Fish and The Watermelon Woman).
They wanted the main character to be a cheerleader because it is ". With girlfriend Andrea Sperling, Babbit came up with the idea for a feature film about a cheerleader who attends a reparative therapy camp. Jamie Babbit and Andrea Sperling (as producer) secured financing for "But I'm a Cheerleader" from Michael Burns (then vice-president of Prudential Insurance, now Vice Chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment) after showing him the script at Sundance.Īccording to Babbit, their one-sentence pitch was: "Two high-school girls fall in love at a reparative therapy camp."Burns gave Babbit and Sperling an initial budget of US$500,000 which was increased to US$1 million when the film went into production.īabbit (whose mother runs a halfway house called New Directions for young people with drug and alcohol problems) had wanted to make a comedy about rehabilitation and the 12-step program.Īfter reading an article about a man who had returned from a reparative therapy camp hating himself, she decided to combine the two ideas.