Bottoms is now available on Blu-ray through Kino Lorber, and it has a ton of extras that are sure to knock you out. Bloopers, deleted scenes, a making-of doc, and not one, but two audio commentaries are all in the ring. One commentary features director and co-writer Emma Seligman, while the other features the ensemble cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, and Ruby Cruz. It’s like the type of physical media you’d get with early 2000s DVDs.
I highly recommend getting a copy for yourself, but in the meantime here are the ten funnest of fun facts I got from the cast’s audio commentary.
- The first scenes that were filmed were Havana and Kaia kissing Ayo and Rachel, respectively.
- Ayo was blown away by Havana’s Rose Liu’s chemistry read. Ayo talks about how Havana brought a grounded vulnerability to Isabel that threw her off her improv game: “I couldn’t actually really respond because I was so moved by your audition.”
- PJ and Josie’s full name-drop! Josie’s surname is Marks, while PJ is an acronym for Patricia-Jones Waters.
- A Cinderella Story was a reference for Bottoms. Ayo didn’t know this until the commentary: “That is random.” She then proceeds to rip on it as she should: “Regina King gives an Oscar-worthy performance as ‘Friend.’”
- Marshawn Lynch wanted to do Bottoms for his queer sister and to challenge the views of his heteronormative fans. He also said his mental health benefited from working on the project after a demanding NFL career and that his first time having performance anxiety was during his monologue scenes.
- Ruby was the only person in the cast who had already done action and stuntwork prior to filming. She brought all her Willow-ness to Hazel.
- Unbeknownst to Rachel, the wrestler character Tucker had the same name as a wrestler she knew in high school. She was unaware until the film was released, and the real Tucker contacted her. Oh, how crazy the subconscious can be.
- The stand-in for Nick when carried by Ayo was a dummy. “A heavy dummy,” she adds.
- There’s an “Oscar worthy” argument scene between PJ and Josie that had to be left on the cutting room floor. As a result of the heat in New Orleans, there were continuity problems with Ayo’s hair, and several scenes had to be reshot.
- Fans made the movie! The cast talks about the pain of not being able to promote the movie during the SAG-AFTRA strikes, then feeling uplifted by online support, TikToks, and Halloween costumes inspired by the movie.