FILM · 2000 · USA
Erin Brockovich
30 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (30)
- #001
The real Erin Brockovich-Ellis claimed the film is 98-99% accurate.
- #002
Julia Roberts received an unprecedented salary for the lead role, making her the first woman to cross the $20 million mark.
- #003
About 10 minutes in, the real Brockovich plays a waitress named Julia, a nod to the actress portraying her.
- #004
The biker boyfriend George, played by Aaron Eckhart, was based on Erin Brockovich-Ellis's Mexican-American biker boyfriend Jorge. Erin and Jorge separated, but Jorge never left her life. For several years he was hired as a full-time live-in nanny for Erin's children, and his pay was covered by the law firm so that Erin could devote more time to her work.
- #005
As of 2003, Erin Brockovich-Ellis was still working at Ed Masry's law firm and had been given the title of Director of Research.
- #006
At about the 3-minute mark, the incredible car crash in the opening sequence was created by digitally combining footage of Julia Roberts's car flying through the air with a stunt driver hitting a radio-controlled car.
- #007
Hinkley's toxins made the real Brockovich ill at one point. Steven Soderbergh shot a hospital scene but later cut it from the final product. "I didn't want people to think this was going to turn into one of those movies where the hero gets deathly ill," he said on the Blu-ray commentary. "It was a hard decision because Erin did get sick and was hospitalized for a while."
- #008
Ed tells Erin that he has experienced the difficulty of living with diabetes while running the firm. The real Ed Masry ultimately died from complications of his diabetes.
- #009
The real Erin Brockovich-Ellis sold the rights to her story to Universal Pictures for $100,000.
- #010
At about 1 hour 20 minutes, Judge LeRoy A. Simmons presided over the defense and discovery in the case between Hinkley and PG&E. He retired while his ruling was being re-enacted directly in front of the cast and cameras.
- #011
After the success of the film about her, Erin Brockovich-Ellis was the target of an extortion attempt by her first husband, her ex-boyfriend (the 'George' biker character in the film) and lawyers who threatened to damage her reputation as a parent. She called the police, who recorded the threatening calls, and had them arrested. The lawyer was reportedly imprisoned as a result.
- #012
Steven Soderbergh set out with cinematographer Edward Lachman to shoot a major commercial film with an independent approach and from a point of view. Shooting on location helped achieve a very natural tone, and hiring local extras from Hinkley, the town involved in the case, increased the authenticity.
- #013
For her performance in this film, Julia Roberts became the first actress to win Best Actress at the Oscars, the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the BAFTA Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards and the Golden Globe Awards (Best Actress - Drama) all at once.
- #014
During a chiropractic appointment, executive producer Carla Santos Shamberg's chiropractor told her about one of his other patients, Erin Brockovich-Ellis. Carla then told her husband, producer Michael Shamberg.
- #015
Albert Finney initially turned the film down. Danny DeVito had to persuade Finney's girlfriend, an actress, to convince him to change his mind; he offered to schedule all of the actor's scenes as Ed Masry closer together so that he would not have to stay in Los Angeles as long as originally planned.
- #016
In real life, Erin Brockovich-Ellis has dyslexia, which shaped her career in citizen activism.
- #017
The real Erin Brockovich-Ellis claimed that although her cleavage had an effect, she never consciously used her body to manipulate anyone as shown in the film.
- #018
In real life, Erin Brockovich-Ellis won the Miss Pacific Coast title, but she soon gave up beauty pageants because she found them "shallow."
- #019
The film had a budget of $52 million and grossed more than $250 million at the box office.
- #020
Studio executives were worried that audiences would not forgive the main character's language. Most of the viewers who attended the film's test screenings still enjoyed it.
- #021
This was the last Steven Soderbergh film shot by a cinematographer other than himself, in this case Edward Lachman. He shot most of his subsequent film and television work under the pseudonym Peter Andrews.
- #022
Steven Soderbergh's original cut of the film ran over three hours.
- #023
Steven Soderbergh was drawn to Susannah Grant's screenplay because of its linear approach, which he largely avoided as a director.
- #024
(At about 1 hour 7 minutes) Julia Roberts/Brockovich wears a maroon cut-off T-shirt with "Oakton Cougars" in gold letters. The customers had found and bought this T-shirt in a thrift store. They later searched online for where this school might be and learned it was a high school in Vienna, Virginia. They contacted the school to ask whether they could use the T-shirt in the film.
- #025
(At about 2 hours 5 minutes) At the end of the film, Erin Brockovich receives a check from the law firm. The check shows a Van Nuys, California address. In real life, it is the address of a gas station at the intersection of Sherman Way and White Oak in Reseda, California.
- #026
The office and house sets were used at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Ventura, California.
- #027
Early in the film, Masry explains that his fee is 40% of the winnings from the case. Near the end of the film, Erin receives a bonus check for $2 million. That corresponds to 40% of the $5 million settlement of the Jensen family, the first family Erin spoke with and the one that started everything.
- #028
The film was screened at the White House for President Bill Clinton.
- #029
The address shown on Erin's bonus check is actually Van Nuys Airport.
- #030
(At about 16 minutes) While Erin is looking for Matthew and Katie, a poster for Jurassic Park (1993), an earlier Universal Pictures release, hangs on the bedroom wall of the second house she visits.
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