FILM · 1999 · USA
Varsity Blues
39 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (39)
- #001
Paul Walker broke his leg during filming.
- #002
Ali Larter and Amy Smart are very good friends in real life as well, and have been for twenty years.
- #003
This was Ali Larter's (Darcy's) first film.
- #004
Shaving cream was used for the scene in which Darcy (Ali Larter) wears her whipped-cream bikini. Whipped cream does not stick properly.
- #005
Top Notch Restaurant is a real restaurant located in Austin, Texas. It also appeared in the film Dazed and Confused (1993).
- #006
The cocktail waitress who serves the football players (wearing red dresses) at the strip club is the club's real owner and C.E.O., from the Texas Bikini Team.
- #007
The character Billy Bob was supposed to be an eighteen-year-old high school senior, but Ron Lester, who played Billy Bob, was 28 years old at the time the film was shot.
- #008
Mox (James Van Der Beek) wears jersey number 4 as a tribute to Brett Favre, the quarterback of James Van Der Beek's favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers.
- #009
The screenplay was about sixteen years old when it went into production.
- #010
Ron Lester imitated the role of Billy Bob when he played Reggie Ray in Not Another Teen Movie (2001).
- #011
The book Mox reads on the sideline, hidden inside the team's playbook, was Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse-Five.
- #012
The University of Toronto trademarked the name Varsity Blues for its sports teams in the mid-1980s. U of T complained that the film portrayed the sport negatively and sued Paramount Pictures, settling for an undisclosed amount and arranging eight scholarships for academically successful student athletes.
- #013
Although they look like Budweiser, all the beers actually carry only a "Beer" label. However, during the barbecue, the can Lance's (Paul Walker) father holds to his head is labeled "Lonestar," a popular Texas beer.
- #014
The "New Tweeder Endzone Dance" is derived from the Ickey Shuffle, a touchdown dance developed by Ickey Woods, who ran for the Cincinnati Bengals between 1988 and 1991.
- #015
A series adapted from the film was planned. The series was to have Ron Lester reprise the role of Billy Bob, but for unknown reasons the plans never got past the pilot stage.
- #016
Joshua Jackson was considered for the role of Mox. He had appeared with James Van Der Beek on Dawson's Creek (1998).
- #017
The gentlemen's club seen in the film (The Landing Strip) is located east of downtown Austin, north of State Highway 71 adjacent to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, near Bastrop Highway (US Highway 183). Another Austin landmark seen in the film is Top Notch Burgers, located off Burnet Road in north Austin.
- #018
At roughly 1 hour 40 minutes, while Mox talks about Coach Kilmer and his statue, Coach Kilmer can be seen in the background (on the left side of the screen, in shadow) leaving the stadium with a box in his hands.
- #019
In Mean Girls (2004), it is mentioned that this is Regina George's favorite film.
- #020
Eliel Swinton (Wendell Brown) was a nationally ranked high school runner and went on to play defense at Stanford University (Class of 1997). After college, Swinton signed with the Kansas City Chiefs and intended to play running back, but his professional career was cut short by an injury.
- #021
The Ford on the film's poster never appears in the film.
- #022
Daniel Stern was originally set to direct the film but was fired because he wanted to make significant changes to the script, including rewriting the first page. This conflicted with the way the producers and Paramount Pictures executives wanted to make the film, as the writer and the studio were determined to preserve the original script as written.
- #023
The film's football coordinator served as a referee in the West Canaan-Gilroy game.
- #024
The home games were shot at Eagle Field in Georgetown, Texas. The scene in which Kilmer enters the locker room corridor was also shot on the Georgetown High School campus. Eagle Field was later demolished after the construction of Birkelbach Field.
- #025
John Gatins made an uncredited change to the script during its rewrite.
- #026
Billy Bob's custom 4x4 truck is a 1973 Chevrolet K Series. Mrs. Davis drives a 1996 Ford Mustang Saleen S281 Speedster.
- #027
Since he took over Paramount Pictures in September 2021, this remains director Brian Robbins's only film released in theaters with an R rating from the MPAA. His later films Hardball (2001) and Norbit (2007) had originally received that rating before being edited for a PG-13 rating.
- #028
James Van Der Beek put on 10 kilograms of muscle for the role of Jonathan "Mox" Moxon.
- #029
The only role belongs to Bristi Havins, who plays the naked girl leaning out the window of Scott Caan's car.
- #030
In the locker room scene, one of the players' jerseys bears the name Robbins, the name of director Brian Robbins.
- #031
This was Johanna Goldsmith's debut.
- #032
The wildcat team that plays the coyotes in the film is the Clovis NM Wildcats.
- #033
This was Stacy Bellew's debut.
- #034
Jon Voight later played another football coach in Second String (2002).
- #035
The practice field where Moxon tries to run the oopty-oop play was the practice field of the Taylor, Texas High School Duck football team. As of August 7, 2016, the Taylor Ducks no longer use this location, as they practice at the new high school that opened in 2011. The open fields seen in this scene are also now gone, replaced by a large residential subdivision.
- #036
This was W. Peter Iliff's third screenplay, which he had written in the 1980s.
- #037
Varsity Blues helped introduce Jon Voight to a younger audience.
- #038
Jesse Plemons (Tommy Harbor) played Landry Clark in Friday Night Lights (2006), another football story centered on a backup quarterback who must step in for an injured star quarterback.
- #039
Most of the lead actors speak with a Southern accent even though they were not born in the Southern United States.
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