Trivia / (500) Days of Summer

• Actor Allusion:
  • Joseph Gordon Levitt previously hit it off with a girl called Autumn on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Both times his character is named Tom (or Tommy).
  • Tom's line about how pretty girls get away with treating people badly mirrors Joseph Gordon Levitt's famous speech in 10 Things I Hate About You - where Cameron chews out Bianca for doing so.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Zooey Deschanel chose the Nancy Sinatra song "Sugartown" for the karaoke scene.
  • In the 'expectations vs reality' sequence, Summer's dress has a similar blue pattern to the wallpaper. She also wears a lot of blue throughout the film. This is because of Zooey Deschanel's memorably vivid blue eyes, and the wardrobe was designed to make them pop.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Joseph Gordon Levitt always wanted to lead a crowd dance.
• Breakthrough Hit: Marc Webb had only directed music videos before this. After the film became a Sleeper Hit, he was given the job of directing The Amazing Spider-Man.
• Career Resurrection: Provided one for Joseph Gordon Levitt. After 3rd Rock from the Sun had ended, he slowly disappeared from acting and eventually took a hiatus. He returned to acting with a few other roles, but this put him back on the map.
• Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer: Feminist Frequency listed Summer as a straight example of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, ignoring that the film subverts and outright challenges the trope. Word of God was that the intention was to deconstruct this naive idea of women.
• Fandom Nod: Joseph Gordon Levitt has given his approval of the fan theory that Tom and Summer's final conversation on the bench didn't happen, feeling it reflected more a moment of inner realisation for Tom than actual reality.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: Co-writer Scott Neustadter was inspired to first start writing while going through a bad break-up, and there was more emphasis on the drama and sadness. The other writer Michael H Weber was in a long-term relationship, and he described the different perspectives helped bring out more comedy to the material.
• Orphaned Reference: Special attention is given to the teenage Summer cutting her hair in the prologue. This made a little more sense when the original plan for her was to have a pixie haircut (providing a Visual Pun to the type of character she was). But since Zooey Deschanel wears her hair long, it just seems like an aspect of Summer's impulsive personality.
• Playing with Character Type: Zooey Deschanel is often known for playing the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. She does here - and deconstructs the whole relationship with one.
• The Red Stapler: Angel's Knoll, which was used for Tom's favourite spot in the film, became a popular tourist attraction afterwards.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Summer was originally envisioned as a blonde to have a more obvious 'summer like' persona. She also had a pixie haircut.
  • The studio never intended to include the love documentary in the film - even telling Marc Webb not to film it. This changed when test audiences reacted positively to it. The documentary also originally ran longer - with opinions from Rachel, Summer, Millie and Tom's mother.
  • The first draft had the film set in San Francisco, rather than Los Angeles.
• Write Who You Know: The story is inspired by a real romance co-writer Scott Neustadter had. When he showed the script to the woman who inspired the character of Summer, she said she identified more with Tom.

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