FILM · 1991 · UK
Drop Dead Fred
35 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (35)
- #001
Carrie Fisher rewrote some of the dialogue.
- #002
The scene in which Polly tapes Fred into a box inside a box was based on a real incident that happened to Steve Burnette, a friend of co-writer/executive producer Carlos Davis; Gloria's mother had an imaginary friend during Gloria's childhood, but her mother could not stand the fact that her daughter had an imaginary friend. Gloria's mother eventually flushed the imaginary friend down the toilet, which traumatized Gloria for three years.
- #003
The script was originally offered to Tim Burton, but he declined to direct it.
- #004
Robin Williams was offered the role of Drop Dead Fred, but he chose to play Peter Banning in Hook (1991) instead. Rik Mayall played Drop Dead Fred in his place. Mayall and Williams both died in the summer of 2014.
- #005
There is an alternative ending in which Elizabeth reads her daughter Natalie a bedtime story at Mickey's house and, a few minutes later, comes out of Natalie's room and tells them about it. A few minutes later Natalie comes out of her room and tells Elizabeth and Mickey that her "imaginary friend" has torn up her teddy bear; Elizabeth asks Natalie the name of her imaginary friend, and Natalie says "Drop Dead Fred." The scene ends with a shot of a pop-up book opening to reveal a pop-up image of Drop Dead Fred, along with Fred's voice saying "Playtime." The film was shown to a test audience, who hated the ending because they hated the idea of Fred disappearing forever. This led New Line Cinema to cut and reshoot the ending with Fred and Natalie playing a prank on Natalie's babysitter. The original ending was included as an extra on the 25th Anniversary Blu-ray.
- #006
Grandmother Bunce is played by the director's mother. Yogurt was used in the scene where paint is thrown on her; she said she was still finding yogurt in her ears weeks later.
- #007
While watching the film's rough cut, a New Line executive asked whether Rik Mayall's character could be re-dubbed to speak with a more transatlantic accent and a less strong English accent, which American audiences would not find very jarring. When one of the Working Title producers called Mayall to pass on the suggestion, Mayall typically replied, "You must be joking, I'm Rik '12-inch throbbing manhood' Mayall and I'm English. If he wants a transatlantic voice, give him a shovel and tell him to dig out Cary 'fucking' Grant." The idea was dropped soon after.
- #008
Carrie Fisher auditioned for Elizabeth, but was considered too old, and was offered the role of Janie instead.
- #009
The mud pie that squirts mud onto Charles's trousers was controlled by compressed-air tubes under the table. At one point something went wrong with the tubes and mud sprayed all over the crew and an uninsured painting worth $100,000.
- #010
Winona Ryder was director Ate De Jong's first choice for Elizabeth after he saw her in Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Heathers (1989). Working Title executive Tim Bevan felt she was too young for the role, but the role was offered to her anyway. She turned it down because she was busy with Mermaids (1990) and did not want to appear in odd comedies. Molly Ringwald, Julia Roberts, Kerri Green, Martha Plimpton, Jennifer Connelly, Lea Thompson and Uma Thurman were also considered for the role.
- #011
Writers Carlos Davis and Anthony Fingleton first took the script to Disney, which wanted Goldie Hawn to star because Disney had a film deal with her at the time, but did not want Rik Mayall. Davis and Fingleton rejected the idea and then took it to the London-based production company Living Title Films; Working Title executives Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe liked the script and hired Dutch filmmaker Ate De Jong as director after seeing his horror comedy Highway to Hell (1991) and being impressed by his work on the film. Working Title also hired Paul Webster, who had produced The Tall Guy (1989) for them the previous year, as producer. The $6 million budget was financed by PolyGram, with which Living Title had a deal at the time.
- #012
It was shot in Minneapolis in 1990; producer Paul Webster felt that shooting there was not only cost-effective but that Minneapolis, unlike Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York, represented a generic American city.
- #013
Shortly after the film's release, Carlos Davis, Anthony Fingleton and producer Paul Webster began working on a sequel with PolyGram, Living Title Films and New Line Cinema, with Rik Mayall reprising the role of Drop Dead Fred. However, Mayall refused to return to the role, and the sequel was therefore reworked with a then-unknown Jim Carrey in the role. That version was scrapped, however, both because PolyGram was experiencing financial difficulties and because Carrey signed on for Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) instead. New Line Cinema later used Carrey that same year in both The Mask (1994) and Dumb and Dumber (1994). In the early 2000s, Mayall worked with both Fingleton and Davis on a proper sequel, with the budget set for production and financing and Focus Features handling distribution, under Working Title. This sequel also would not happen because of Mayall's worsening health. In 2009, Working Title and Universal Pictures began working on a remake of Drop Dead Fred with Russell Brand, but the project was shelved because of the box-office failure of Arthur (2011).
- #014
The film was originally to be shot in the United Kingdom, but it was decided to shoot it in the US because Rik Mayall wanted to make films worldwide. However, Working Title executive Tim Bevan felt that an English actress should still be cast in the female lead. Mayall, producer Paul Webster and writers Carlos Davis and Anthony Fingleton rejected this, however, because they felt that making a US film with two English actors in the lead roles would still be an English film, and they insisted on casting an American actress in the female lead, and also needed an American actress in order to find a US distributor to buy the film.
- #015
Writers Anthony Fingleton and Carlos Davis wrote the role of Fred only for Rik Mayall; Mayall even contributed ideas to the script, such as the opening in which Elizabeth's mother reads her a bedtime story and Fred sinking the floating boat. Phoebe Cates also came up with the idea of Drop Dead Fred being visible in some scenes and not in others.
- #016
The houseboat Janie lives on is a real residence.
- #017
Both the producer and the co-writer/co-executive producer appear in the film without being credited by name. Webster is the man who gets into Lizzie's car and steals her purse, and Fingleton is one of the wine tasters at Charles's wine-tasting party.
- #018
New Line Cinema asked director Ate De Jong to cut some of the gross-out humor, such as the shot in which Fred spits into Lizzie's head and the shot in which Fred flicks snot into Polly's coffee. These scenes later resurfaced in the film's 25th Anniversary Blu-ray release.
- #019
The fire truck Fred crashes into is, as in Elizabeth's imagination, a visualization of the toy fire truck she mentioned earlier.
- #020
Phoebe Cates's real hair was actually quite short during filming, which required her to wear increasingly noticeable wigs that grew shorter as the story progressed.
- #021
Some sets were built and filmed at Prince's Paisley Park Studios in Minnesota, and Prince even visited the sets secretly at night. It was also the first film not to star Prince, since he had previously shot Prince's "o' the Times" (1987) and Graffiti Bridge (1990) there.
- #022
Lizzie's father is English, just as Rik Mayall is English; Drop Dead Fred is a metaphor for the father Lizzie wishes she had.
- #023
Alec Baldwin, John Getz, Jeff Goldblum, Jeffrey Jones and Rick Moranis were considered for the role of Charles.
- #024
Josh Brolin, Michael J. Fox, Anthony Michael Hall, Matthew Modine, Keanu Reeves and Charlie Sheen were considered for the role of Mickey Bunce.
- #025
Geena Davis and Beverly D'Angelo were considered for the role of Janie.
- #026
When the film was released in the US it failed and bombed. Because there was no major studio behind it, it received only relatively small, unpublicized releases abroad and went unnoticed. In hindsight this seems like an odd decision, since Rik Mayall was an incredibly popular comedian among young people in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and a strong theatrical release in those countries would likely have earned good box office.
- #027
Phoebe Cates's husband, Kevin Kline, was supposed to take a role in the film, but it never happened.
- #028
Ashley Peldon, who plays young Elizabeth, has blue eyes; Phoebe Cates has brown eyes.
- #029
John Cleese was the first choice of the writers Carlos Davis and Anthony Fingleton for the role of Drop Dead Fred.
- #030
The light brown-orange hair dye Rik Mayall used to play the title character took several months to fade and grow out, and it is noticeable in the third series of Mayall's sitcom The New Statesman (1987).
- #031
Although most of the characters in the film hate his character, all the cast and crew, including Marsha Mason and Tim Matheson, who play the film's antagonists Polly and Charles, said only positive things about Rik Mayall. After Mayall's death in 2014, everyone shared fond memories of him.
- #032
Alisan Porter was first considered for the role of young Elizabeth after director Ate De Jong and producer Paul Webster saw her in both Parenthood (1989) and Stella (1990) (which coincidentally also starred Marsha Mason). However, she was unavailable because she was busy working on Curly Sue (1991). De Jong and Webster's next choice was Jodie Sweetin. But the producers of Full House (1987) refused to release her from her contract, and both Living Title executive Tim Bevan and co-writers/executive producers Carlos Davis and Anthony Fingleton wanted a less well-known child actor for the role. Christina Ricci, Kirsten Dunst, Ariana Richards and Anna Chlumsky also auditioned for the role.
- #033
Tim Matheson, who plays Elizabeth's husband Charles, married Elizabeth Marighetto in 2018.
- #034
Although the character is fictional, Elizabeth Cronin shares her name with one of the film's writers, Elizabeth Livingston.
- #035
Although the film was intended (and made) as a broad comedy with plenty of gross-out material, it was also intended to have a consistent logic regarding Fred: he and the other imaginary friends can only be seen by their single child (here, Elizabeth with Fred) because they represent that child's subconscious. And they exist only for people with emotional problems, not for those living stable lives.
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