Trivia / Carrie (2013)

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Julianne Moore suggested that Margaret's hair be greying.
  • Nicki and Lizzy weren't sisters in the original script, just best friends. Kimberly Peirce then cast twin sisters Katie and Karissa Strain.
• Actor-Shared Background: Chloe Moretz was raised by a single mother like Carrie, though thankfully not a crazy one.
• Beauty Inversion:
  • The beautiful Julianne Moore is dressed down considerably so that, although Margaret White is still more attractive than in the book, the difference is noticeable.
  • Portia Doubleday is specifically given an unflattering fake tan and dark hair that makes her look like she stepped off the set of Jersey Shore, and general bits of excessive fakery - which was a deliberate choice to make it look as though Chris was insecure and jealous of Carrie's looks.
• Corpsing: Every time Julianne Moore tries to get Chloe Grace Moretz to pray, she cracks up. It's very noticeable in the final scene before Carrie is stabbed.
• Creator's Oddball: Kimberly Peirce's two films before this, Boys Don't Cry and Stop-Loss were gritty dramas.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Averted with Carrie; the 15-year-old Chloë Moretz is a year younger than Carrie was in the book and three years younger than she is in the film (age 18). The fact that this is played straight with the other teenage characters makes Carrie look even younger, smaller, and more vulnerable in comparison.
  • Sue is played by the 23-year-old Gabriella Wilde.
  • Chris is played by the 24-year-old Portia Doubleday.
  • Billy is played by the 24-year-old Alex Russell. However, in the original book he's a nineteen-year-old dropout, while here it's stated that he doesn't go to the school, meaning that there's a good chance he's older than high school age.
• Deleted Role:
  • Vanessa Smythe filmed two scenes as Carrie's neighbor Estelle Horan - first in the original opening with the rock fall on the house, second as an older woman testifying about the incident before the White Commission.
  • Chris's friend Donna Kellogg, who's The Ghost in the book, appeared in a deleted scene testifying against her.
• Deleted Scene: A scene was shot featuring young Carrie making rocks rain on her house, but was cut from the final film.
• Disowned Adaptation: Downplayed. Stephen King is not too fond of this version, but he did like how the movie modernized the story, as cyberbullying didn't exist in The '70s, but is a real problem now.
• Distanced from Current Events: A Zig-Zagged example. The film was delayed from March 15 to October 18, just two months before its planned release date. The studio's explanation was that it was to take advantage of the lucrative Halloween market for horror films, but director Kimberly Peirce contends that the real reason was the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting making it uncomfortable to release a film with Carrie's subject matter just three months afterwards. It’s also because the film was to be edited once more to remove nearly 40 minutes of footage to make the film out to be more of a remake rather than another adaptation of the novel.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Portia Doubleday, a natural blonde, became brunette to play Chris.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • The detention scene was filmed in 103 degree temperatures, helping the actresses look sweaty and weary - to the point Kimberly Peirce was worried they'd pass out from heat stroke.
  • Chloe Moretz also insisted^note At about 5:25 that she not be told when the pig blood would be dumped on her head, so that she'd be just as surprised by it as Carrie would be.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The film was not intended to be a remake at all. Director Kimberly Pierce intended to make a film that was more faithful to the book than the earlier film, but the studio forced her to reshoot footage to bring it more into line with the deviations Brian De Palma had originally made. A leaked screenplay confirms this.
  • Subverted in another case. As filming was running overschedule, they tried to get Kimberly Peirce to abandon the scene where Carrie shops for fabric to make her prom dress. She refused, and they used a single-take shot.
• Fake American: English actress Gabriella Wilde as Sue, Australian actor Alex Russell as Billy, and like the '02 version, tons of Canadian actors (it was shot in Toronto this time). The only Americans in the cast are Chloë Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judy Greer, Ansel Elgort and Portia Doubleday.
• Hypothetical Casting: Although against the idea of another remake, in 2011 Stephen King suggested Lindsay Lohan as Carrie. Sissy Spacek agreed.
• Method Acting: In the 2013 version, Chloë Moretz sewed dresses for herself (though they weren't used on-screen), and visited homeless shelters and spent hours on end locked in a closet in order to simulate what Carrie's mother put her through. She also tried not to break character on set.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • Special attention is given to Freddy Holt trying to film Carrie using her powers before he's killed in her rampage. This was going to tie into the deleted subplot involving the White Commission - with the footage being used as proof that Carrie had powers.
  • Sue confronts Heather at the prom, who evasively says that Chris isn't there. She and the twins were confirmed to be part of the prank, which also explains why they're laughing especially cruelly at the video.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Chloe Moretz had traditionally played confident, assertive characters with a sharp sense of humor. Here she plays the incredibly shy and awkward Carrie.
  • Judy Greer had mostly done comedies (with the exception of The Descendants and The Village (2004)) and her only horror role was the light-hearted Cursed. Additionally she usually plays the best friend who really gets around or the concerned insignificant mother.
  • In the Japanese dub of the 2013 film this is for Keiko Han (Margaret in the 2013 film) and her daughter Megumi Han (Carrie in the 2013 film) as both voice actresses are well known for voicing heroic roles. Likewise, this is one of the few times both actresses played roles when their characters are antagonic with each other.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • In the Japanese dub, Keiko Han and Megumi Han voice Margaret and Carrie respectively, who are also mother and daughter in Real Life.
  • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Sue Snell and Tommy Ross's voice actors (Carla and Arturo Castañeda) are slibings in Real Life.
• Spared by the Cut: There was a scene where minor character George gets impaled with a lantern while trying to help people escape the prom. It's not in the final cut of the film, and his fate is left open.
• Throw It In!:
  • Billy kissing the hammer before killing the pigs. Alex Russell then got sick because the hammer had pig droppings on it.
  • Kimberley Peirce had intended to use the hymn "Let The Lower Lights Be Burning", but she discovered that Julianne Moore could sing - and so had her sing it instead.
• Uncredited Role: Michelle Nolden as Estelle Parsons.
• Viral Marketing: The film had a slew of this. The two main vehicles for it were the website You Will Know Her Name, containing images from the "White Commission Report" investigating Carrie's rampage, and a phone number, [phone], with a recording of Carrie and Margaret on the other end.
  • The number is now 1-855-522-7713. In addition, there are some time-specific recordings (for example, Margaret berates the caller in February for being a "whore" by celebrating Valentine's Day).
  • The creators of the 2013 adaptation also ran a viral marketing campaign in the form of a candid camera prank. They used Practical Effects to make it look like a girl with telekinetic powers was going nuts in a coffee shop after having coffee spilled on her. As of this writing, it has over sixty million views.
    • Now with a Brazilian remake for the film's release down there.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Shailene Woodley was offered the role of Carrie, but turned it down; had she taken the role, it would've teamed her up with Ansel Elgort as onscreen partners a full year before The Fault in Our Stars. Haley Bennett, Dakota Fanning, Emily Browning, Lily Collins, and Bella Heathcote also auditioned for the role, with Bennett allegedly having been the front-runner alongside Chloë Moretz. Jodie Foster was also considered to play Margaret, while Ivana Baquero auditioned to play Chris.
  • Stephen King, though against the idea of another remake, recommended Lindsay Lohan for the role of Carrie in 2011.
  • A leaked early version of the screenplay backs up the director's claims that they were going to stick closer to the book's narrative style, with the main plot treated as a flashback frequently intercut with witness testimony, found footage, and a video diary Sue makes in the weeks following the Black Prom.
  • According to the deleted scenes on the Blu-ray, test audiences, and the trailers, there is still a lot of deleted footage left on the cutting room floor (about 40 minutes worth) that would have probably made this version more faithful to the novel, and there has been fan petitions ever since asking the studios to release an extended cut incorporating as much of this missing footage as possible.
  • Carrie and Chris would have a direct interaction after Carrie leaves the dress shop. The scene cuts off just as Carrie looks at the fabric.
  • The moment from the book and other two films of Miss Desjardin talking about her own prom was filmed, but cut.
  • If you go by the unused scenes, George was supposed to die at the prom - being impaled by one of the star lanterns while Erika watches in horror. He's implied to survive in the finished film.
  • The twins in the script had more active roles in the prank. Nicki would play the video after the blood is poured, Lizzy would trip Carrie up as she ran out of the gym. Nicki would also be the one to sneak Chris and Billy in. They were also going to die when the bleachers crushed them, which in the film is changed to getting trampled to death while Carrie holds them down.
  • The short scene of Sue and Miss Desjardin outside the gym after the massacre ran longer - with Tommy's body being taken out on a stretcher.

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