Trivia / Coyote Ugly

• Acting for Two: LeAnn Rimes provides the Non-Singing Voice of Violet while also appearing As Herself, so she's dueting with herself at one point.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Piper Perabo was originally from New Jersey and moved to New York to pursue her dreams, just like Violet.
  • Lil later gives Violet a "Not So Different" Remark, and Maria Bello said that Violet's story paralleled her own, calling the movie "the story of my young adult life". She's also only one year younger than the real Lil Lovell.
• Approval of God: While Elizabeth Gilbert, who had written the original short story, found the Disneyfication ridiculous, she says they got Lil right and the sisterhood.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • Melanie Lynskey's main reason for signing on was that the script had been written by Kevin Smith (the draft she read at least; see below). She was rather surprised when the first table read revealed a completely different one.
  • Lenny Kravitz's management initially refused to let his music be used in the film, thinking it didn't seem like a "serious movie". Then he saw a billboard and allowed "Fly Away" to be used because he thought the actresses were "hot".
• Breakaway Pop Hit: LeAnn Rimes' "Can't Fight the Moonlight" became a big hit worldwide in summer 2000, serving as a brief turning point in her career, switching from country to pop during the first half of the 2000s before returning back to country.
• California Doubling: While a majority of the movie was shot on location in New York, bad weather and flooding meant some parts of LA had to double.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Maria Bello bartended for years before catching her big break as an actress. Lil's flair bartending is all Maria.
  • Adam Garcia had also been a dancer for ten years, and demonstrates that in the date auction scene.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Izabella Miko (Cammy) originally auditioned for the role of Violet.
• Dear Negative Reader: The movie got some criticism for perceived objectification of its female stars. Maria Bello however refuted that, stating.
  There was nothing exploitative. All of those women worked so hard on those dance numbers and were so focused."
• Defictionalization: A Coyote Ugly bar opened in Las Vegas, in the New York New York resort. Even before, the Coyote Ugly was inspired by the Coyote Ugly Saloon, founded in 1991 by Liliana Lovell.
• Disowned Adaptation: The real Lil says she's only watched the movie once, and hates that it shows her buying the whole bar a round after the health department comes in. She is however very appreciative of the positive effect it had on her business
• Dyeing for Your Art: The actresses were all on a diet and exercise regimen, and Melanie Lynskey had it particularly bad, with rude remarks about her weight from the costume and makeup people.
  "It was ridiculous. I was already starving myself and as thin as I could possibly be for this body, and I was still a [size] four. Just the feedback was constantly like, 'You're not beautiful. You're not beautiful. In your early 20s, so much of it is about beauty, and how people respond to you, and do people want to fuck you?"
• Fake American: Melanie Lynskey, who is New Zealander, naturally continued her career streak of only playing Americans after Heavenly Creatures.
• Fake Russian: Cammie is nicknamed 'The Russian Tease'. Her actress Izabella Miko is Polish.
• Friendship on the Set: Piper Perabo and Melanie Lynskey are still friends twenty years later.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Comedians such as Alex Borstein, JJ Snyder, and Kaitlin Olson were hired to play bidders at the date auction and shout out anything funny they could think of.
• I Am Not Spock: Maria Bello still gets approached by fans, and is best known as "the owner of Coyote Ugly".
• Money, Dear Boy:
  • The reason why John Goodman did the movie.
  • Kevin Smith also recalls getting paid $150,000 just to edit the script, and the only contribution of his that was kept in was Cammy's joke about playing in the minor leagues re: experimenting with women.
• Non-Singing Voice: LeAnn Rimes provided Violet's singing voice instead of Piper Perabo. Piper is able to sing, but they just decided to have her dubbed.
• On-Set Injury: Tyra Banks tore her lateral meniscus while dancing on the bar.
• Orphaned Reference: Midway through the movie, Violet is practicing a song that we hear is "Right Kind of Wrong", which never features again in the movie. This is because it was originally going to be the song she performed at the end, which had to be changed (see below).
• Real-Life Relative: The photographs of Violet's mother are actually pictures of Piper Perabo's real mother. Since the mother is a Posthumous Character who never appears in person they didn't need to cast an actual actress so Perabo just supplied the photos to use as props.
• The Red Stapler: The real Coyote Ugly bar ended up a popular tourist attraction in New York, and more bars opened in other cities.
• Star-Making Role:
  • The film served as a breakthrough for Piper Perabo.
  • To an extent, for Maria Bello. She was already known on television through ER, but this was her first major film.
• Talent Double: Tyra Banks was doubled by Delila Vallot for her dancing.
• Throw It In!:
  • Kevin's striptease on the bar came about because Jerry Bruckheimer saw Adam Garcia dancing, and wanted a scene where he danced on the bar. Thus they came up with the date auction sequence.
  • JJ Snyder likewise improvised pulling Kevin down from the bar and kissing him (although she asked Adam Garcia for permission before doing so).
• Uncredited Role: Kevin Smith, who did an uncredited rewrite of the script, stated that a total of eight writers worked on the script while the Writers Guild of America only gave credit to Gina Wendkos, who wrote the first draft of the script, which, according to Smith, scarcely resembles the final film.
• Underage Casting: Izabella Miko was only 18 at the time, playing a character who bartends in New York. She herself used a fake ID during filming.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Jessica Simpson was offered the part of Violet, who turned it down. Her main point of contention was a sex scene that the filmmakers refused to take out (and then most of the sex scenes were later deleted). Fairuza Balk, January Jones and Britney Spears were considered before they decided to go with unknown actors. January Jones confessed to being told she did a great reading but bombed when they needed her to dance.
  • John Goodman was given more scenes after test audiences said they wanted to see more of his character.
  • Adam Garcia recalls a version of the script he had being much darker. The scene where Violet mistakes him buying the Spider-Man comic as buying drugs was actually a drug deal in that draft.
  • Bridget Moynahan recalls filming Rachel doing many somersaults on the bar, and they didn't make the final cut.
  • A different song was originally the one Violet performs towards the end, but test audiences felt it was missing something. They then chose "Can't Fight the Moonlight" to make it more uplifting. Songwriter Dianne Warren had only a week to write it.

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