Blake Lively Nearly Wasn't in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and More Secrets and tactics to Piece With Your BFFs
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants equals Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, Amber Tamblyn & The United States Ferrera now, however varied actors almost wore the enchanted denims—plus extra secrets and tactics about the 2005 YA traditional.
The denim sported by The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is downright traditional at this point.
The film about four chums who share a pair of magical denims that withhold them bonded, even when separated by summer season vacation, has been making its manner within the field since June 1, 2005. And appropriate as a appropriate pair of denims never goes out of sort, the 20-year-extraordinary film—according to the standard YA new by Ann Brashares—remains a fan well-liked, as does its 2008 sequel. Meanwhile, stars Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, The United States Ferrera and Amber Tamblyn have sustained their possess sisterhood IRL.
Elevate, as an instance, when Ferrera scored an Oscar nomination for Barbie. “They FaceTimed me as a team appropriate kind away,” she educated Selection in 2024. “It used to be hilarious and humorous and emotional, and it's good to be renowned and held up by my sisters.”
Ferrera added, “These females who I've had the honor of rising up with in this exchange and being cherished and cheered on and supported by them,” Ferrera talked about. “Which we all kind for every and each varied. They're unbelievable, and this sort of gift in my life.”
While talk of trilogy used to be your entire rage for awhile—”We would fancy to receives a commission to dangle out with each and each varied,” Ferrera quipped to E! Files in 2017—the four actresses now have eight kids amongst them, so the sisterhood would moreover must commute with tote baggage and snacks.
“Family makes it laborious,” Tamblyn, who shares an 8-year-extraordinary daughter with husband David Substandard, acknowledged on SiriusXM's Pop Custom Highlight in 2022. “Existence makes it laborious.”
Nonetheless tales of BFFs supporting each and each varied through thick and thin are timeless, so no one has ever talked about never.
But even making this breath of new cinematic air two an extended time ago came with its challenges.
Correct as is the case when any standard e book makes the jump from web page to conceal, there's a job. And there had been a couple of actresses who almost made it into the solid however in a roundabout scheme weren't the appropriate kind fit.
While there's aloof no valid reason gradual how the magical pants work—as Bledel's personality Lena talked about, it’s “scientifically very unlikely”—here's a pocketful of secrets and tactics about The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants:
Why Pants?
“I mediate pants have ordinary qualities, significantly in a lady’s life,” The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants creator Ann Brashares educated BookBrowse of how she devised the unconventional’s conceit, a magical pair of denims that fits four chums of differing sizes. “Whatever bodily insecurities we now have, we appear to take out on our pants. In high college, my chums would have their skinny pants and their beefy pants. I admire pants that permit females now to not identify their bodies. The Traveling Pants are the extra or less pants that always fancy you.”
And she or he acquired the foundation for the e book when she used to be working as an editor and a colleague educated her about sharing a pair of pants in conjunction with her chums one summer season.
“She educated me the pants had sadly been misplaced in Borneo,” Brashares talked about. “My mind used to be straight away stuffed with each and each form of good possibilities.”
Writers' Room
After discovering out Brashares’ 2001 new, producer Debra Martin Dash used to be in on bringing the approaching-of-age chronicle to the big conceal.
Warner Bros. senior executive Kevin McCormick actually handy they salvage Delia Ephron to adapt the script, so Dash and the prolific creator holed up for every week at a Beverly Hills resort to plan out the film, after which Ephron headed motivate to Unusual York to salvage to work.
“Her first draft comes in, and it’s huge,” Dash talked about on a February 2024 episode of the Hollywood Gold podcast, “and all of a unexpected we now have a blinking green light.”
That Obvious One thing
Ephron, whose varied film credits include You’ve Purchased Mail, is acclaimed all on her possess, however when she tackled the screenplay for SOTTP, she did consult a fellow expert within the discipline of romantic-comedy timing, onscreen friendships and crackling dialogue: Her older sister and frequent collaborator, When Harry Met Sally creator-director Nora Ephron.
As Correct as It Will get
Helen Hunt, who at the time had directed a couple of episodes of her NBC sitcom Enraged About You, used to be amongst those in consideration to enlighten the film, Dash talked about on Hollywood Gold, recalling how the Oscar- and Emmy-a hit actress used to be looking out to construct her resume gradual the digicam.
Nonetheless eventual SOTTP director Ken Kwapis’ imaginative and prescient blew her away: “He talked about how American Graffiti used to be the defining film of his life, as a particular person, as a man, and had impressed him to be a filmmaker,” Dash shared. “He talked about the ways by which Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants could presumably parallel American Graffiti, and I used to be like, ‘OK, he’s in my head, he will get this film, I’m executed.’”
“I Am No longer a Teenage Woman”
When Kwapis met with the producers, he started with the indisputable truth that he couldn’t undoubtedly title with what any of the four female protagonists within the film could presumably be going through.
“I opened my pitch by asserting, ‘I’m no longer a teenage girl,’” he wrote in his 2020 memoir What I The truth is Admire to Intention Is Impart, noting the myth “used to be aimed squarely at a demographic to which I clearly don’t belong. I used to be firm that chief amongst the producer’s concerns used to be: Why could presumably aloof we hire a man in his forties to enlighten a film about teenage ladies?”
Therefore, he took it upon himself to highlight the universal subject issues within the myth, equivalent to the problem Bridget is experiencing within the wake of her mother’s loss of life and her questionable resolution-making in her quest to fill the void.
As he wrote, “Giving Bridget’s myth a broader emotional context contented my listeners that having ‘teen cred’ used to be no longer as necessary as gleaming how to attach honest human behavior on the conceal.”
The Sisterhood Takes Form
“The four ladies had been so successfully-drawn, so distinctive,” Dash talked about, “that everyone had somebody to title with.” And because the Princess Diaries producer knew, casting could presumably be every little thing when it came to bringing the chums’ denim-is-thicker-than-blood bond to life.
The United States Ferrera used to be solid first as Carmen in 2003, according to Dash. Nonetheless getting the leisure of the team collectively used to be a extra painstaking job.
They offered the characteristic of Lena to Gilmore Girls superstar Alexis Bledel, however she passed, so that they planned to switch with Smallville’s Kristin Kreuk. Meanwhile, Mischa Barton—who used to be 17 and aloof months some distance from the premiere of The O.C.—used to be going to play Bridget.
As Destiny Would Admire It
After which the exchange of Hollywood acquired within the manner. Dash had a take care of Disney at the time, she explained on Hollywood Gold, and two of three motion pictures the studio used to be planning to construct with Hilary Duff had been “earmarked” for the producer. Meanwhile, Duff used to be connected to a spec script for one thing known as A Cinderella Memoir that ended up being offered to Warner Bros. with out being shopped first to Disney.
Walt Disney Studios’ then-chairman Dick Cook used to be “apoplectic,” Dash talked about, and he ended negotiations with Duff, so Dash now no longer had two motion pictures with the Lizzie McGuire superstar on her slate. After which, she recalled, “Warner Bros. is like, ‘Properly, we don’t are looking out to have too many girl motion pictures at one time. Now we have gotten to construct the Cinderella Memoir film this summer season, so we desire to attend a year for Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.’ So, over a weekend I’m, like, screwed.”
Stitching the Sisterhood Collectively
Nonetheless the soft prep continued and Amber Tamblyn—then starring on the severely acclaimed CBS drama Joan of Arcadia—came onboard to play aspiring filmmaker Tibby. Nevertheless, Smallville and The O.C. had develop into cultural phenomena, so it used to be motivate to the drawing board to construct up Lena and Bridget after Kreuk and Barton modified into “no longer undoubtedly available,” Dash talked about.
Fortunately, Bledel reconsidered, nailed her audition and used to be in a position to construct it work in conjunction with her Gilmore Girls schedule. And within the meanwhile they “noticed each person,” Dash talked about, including Kaley Cuoco, Alexis PenaVega, Missy Peregrym and Olivia Wilde, who used to be on the “brief record” for Bridget.
The actress who conducted Bridget needed to be “perfect, however in a pure manner,” Dash explained. “You’ve gotten to judge she used to be a virgin, she wasn't caught up in her appears to be like. And she or he had in articulate to behave! Her mother dies, that characteristic had heaps of depth. We actually had considered each person who used to be presumably appropriate kind. And we educated the casting director, ‘You’ve acquired to return available, we haven’t found her.’”
Lookin’ Lively
When 15-year-extraordinary Blake Lively auditioned, displaying up with a head shot that used to be “fully smooth,” Dash recalled, on myth of she “had never labored,” they knew they’d their Bridget.
Nonetheless the studio had reservations on myth of she used to be so young and inexperienced, so “we brought in Olivia Wilde, Missy Peregrym and Blake within the closing audition,” Dash continued. “It used to be Blake’s characteristic.”
Sliding Doors
Lively had been planning to switch to Stanford for as lengthy as she can also very successfully be unsleeping, however scoring the characteristic of Bridget “extra or less appropriate took my life on a determined detour,” the L.A. native educated MTV Files in 2005.
Sisterhood used to be “a whimsical first job,” Lively educated Ben Affleck, who directed her in The Town, for Interview in 2010. “And all I had to kind used to be miss finals at college? So I thought, ‘Properly, this is huge. I’ll appropriate are trying out performing and impress if I admire it.’ I uncared for my finals, I used to be away shooting for the summer season, and I came motivate dwelling. Nonetheless in preference to pursue performing, I made up my mind that I needed to kind out my senior year. I thought I’ll kind high college after which I’ll preserve off going to faculty for a year and appropriate are trying it. Nonetheless here I’m aloof performing. Things labored out all appropriate kind.”
Casting Kostos
Dash thought she knew who used to be going to play Kostos, the local boy Lena falls head over heels for when she visits her grandparents in Greece for the summer season.
He “looked like a prince,” the producer talked about on Hollywood Gold of the unnamed heartthrob who, sadly, acquired away after he used to be authorised into the London College of Dramatic Arts.
“We had been devastated,” Dash admitted, after which they acquired on with what she known as “Santorini Idol,” i.e. the gaze for the following Kostos. Alcon Leisure flew in three doable mates for Lena (in any other case it used to be looking out at auditions on VHS tapes FedExed to Santorini from the U.S.) and “at the absolute closing minute” they went with Michael Rady.
“Correct a fair appropriate-looking out human being,” Dash talked about, noting that they kept in contact after the Sisterhood motion pictures and she recruited him for a 2021 episode of The Equalizer, on which she’s an executive producer.
Paper Pusher
Kwapis moreover kept busy valid throughout the year he had free when manufacturing used to be postponed: He directed the pilot of the American adaptation of The Office (apart from the standard first season episode “Selection Day”), and has been credited over and over for serving to set the tone of your entire cult-traditional series.
“The evening before we open shooting Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” Dash shared, “he will get a call that they’ve been picked up for series.”
Nonetheless Kwapis—who directed 11 extra episodes of The Office—centered on the topic at hand on Santorini, where they spent a month filming Lena’s storyline, and undoubtedly earned the title of world’s easiest boss.
Costume Rehearsal
Since the film’s four stars hadn’t known each and each varied the least bit before being solid as BFFs, Kwapis came up with some actions to lend a hand jumpstart the sensation that they had been lifelong chums.
“One used to be, I gave each and each of the four actors $75, and I actually handy them to switch to a thrift store in Vancouver where we had been shooting, and their job used to be to aquire one thing in personality and to portray the others about what they could presumably aloof aquire in personality,” the director educated Leisure Weekly before SOTTP’s 20th anniversary in 2025.
“I didn't breeze along with them, however the four actors came motivate and they reported that it used to be a excellent bonding experience for them, by which they developed a extra or less huge shorthand that they former in their few scenes collectively.”
Tailor Made
The pants logging all those frequent flier miles are a pair of secondhand Levi’s, that are undoubtedly preserved within the Levi Strauss & Co. Archives.
And now to not interrupt the spell or anything else, however many pairs of denims conducted the one magical pair, each and each tailored completely for whichever actress used to be carrying the pants.
“I attempted to stage it to construct it scrutinize as natural as that which you should perchance also imagine,” Kwapis educated EW of the scene where they impress these aren’t usual denims. “Blake has the pants, she takes them off and hands them to The United States, and there's nothing obviously magical going on. There's nothing that's going to signal that a magical occasion is occurring. The United States appropriate puts them on and they fit. There used to be fair a itsy-bitsy film magic going on, obviously, fair a itsy-bitsy little bit of sleight of hand, however there used to be no worship VFX. It used to be extra or less an extraordinary college trickery, and I'm very happy with that scene.”
Residing Dressing
While the manufacturing did spend every week in Cabo San Lucas to salvage the exterior scenes for Bridget’s pause at a scenic soccer camp in Mexico, the camp used to be built fully in Kamloops, British Columbia—and your entire waterfront used to be courtesy of CGI.
A Correct Bonding Ride
SOTTP creator Brashares wasn’t angry about the film “in any first price skill,” she educated Writers Digest in 2008, however Kwapis and the producers “had been very welcoming and sweetly solicitous of my thought, despite the indisputable truth that they had been no manner scoot to take it.”
Overall, she talked about, “It ended up being a extraordinarily happy experience. I enjoyed being angry about the publicity and the promotion efforts, which I used to be happy to kind on myth of I undoubtedly did be pleased the film; I mediate they did a huge job.”
Brashares critical it used to be moreover see-opening to scrutinize the hassle fervent to bring a part that can also very successfully be innocuous on the web page—like a rainy evening—to life onscreen.
You build these “itsy-bitsy, arbitrary choices as a creator,” she explained, “and you positively see them are trying and kind it on the conceal and oh, how costly and labor intensive each and each single thing is. It’s a lot more uncomplicated to jot down.”
Why the Pants Admire Match So Many Fans
“I mediate typically those tween girl motion pictures are no longer very huge, they’re no longer very genuine,” Tamblyn educated the Canadian Press in 2018, explaining why—on the flip aspect—SOTTP (one and two) labored so successfully.
Other than being legit appropriate motion pictures, Tamblyn credited the motion pictures’ reputation to the enduring friendship she shares with Lively, Bledel and Ferrera. “I mediate folk undoubtedly fancy that,” she talked about, “this design that which you should perchance also—worthy like females have such deep, complex relationships with their girlfriends, that the four of us undoubtedly have that in valid life, and that it is miles extra or less this ordinary sisterhood.”
And they’re no longer one-size-fits-all, either.
“Some of us don’t have anything else in frequent,” Tamblyn added. “Fancy, Blake is a guru of Louboutin shoes. She will figure out how to attach an outfit collectively in two seconds. She’s so immaculate and appropriate at doing that, and I’m utterly clueless. I will send her texts of pictures of outfits and be like, ‘Must I attach on this?’ She’s like, ‘No, please don’t attach on that. Don’t attach on cowboy boots with that, we’re no longer doing that this day.’ Nonetheless the indisputable truth that we fancy each and each varied and we’re so conclude, I mediate it’s what folk undoubtedly bond with about the film.”
No Gossip Girls Here
There’s merely no dirt to be found about the making of SOTTP.
“After I did Sisterhood, I had the largest experience somebody can ever imagine,” Lively talked about in February 2024 on Tamblyn’s Substack video series Extra Ado. “In an exchange that continually pits females towards each and each varied, [we] defied the guidelines.”
Milestone Moments
While the rumors that her SOTTP costars had been godmothers to Lively’s daughter James turned out to no longer be magnificent, they’ve shared some serious firsts.
Tamblyn used to be most contemporary when Lively first auditioned for the characteristic of Bridget, and Lively “used to be the necessary particular person (after my husband) to preserve my daughter within the sanatorium after she used to be born,” the Extra Ado host talked about in a assertion when Lively used to be a visitor. “Blake is an ever-queer, mischievous, contented soul, and I’m extremely joyful folk will salvage to experience the depths of a friendship that we now have cultivated and nourished for extra than two an extended time.”
Where Are They Now? (Book Sequence Spoiler Alert…)
Yell of developing a 3rd Sisterhood film has dwindled in contemporary years (though, for the document, Dash talked about on Hollywood Gold in 2024 that she’d aloof fancy to construct one more one and Kwapis educated EW in 2025 he remained “hopeful” it can presumably happen). Nonetheless Brashares has had pointers on what took space to Lena, Carmen and Bridget years after the closing e book within the series, Sisterhood Everlasting, came out in 2011 (and, wail, sent Tibby off into the lovely sunset).
In that closing e book, “there’s a sense that they had been undoubtedly laying down roots,” the creator educated Teen Vogue in 2017. “And they’re checking out ways to attach down roots and have them intertwine in each and each varied's lives. In articulate that they're initiating to set up families, and build a 2nd period of itsy-bitsy ones. I see that continuing. I mediate I set heaps of that in slouch at the pause of that closing e book.”
Source credit : eonline.com
