Happy anniversary, Terry and Rick!
Thanks to the encouragement of a few die-hard fans, Sony is releasing the movie today on Blu-Ray.
“I was approached by Columbia Pictures.
Credit: Everett Collection
There was an executive who saw a short film I made and had invited me in for a meeting.
He said he’s hooking me up with this producer and sending a script calledLadies Man.
They felt the script was good, but it was too close toFast Times at Ridgemont High.
Everett Collection
The guy said they ownedTootsie.
He said, ‘Why don’t we doTootsiein a high school?’
High school films were cheap to make.
Everett Collection
They’re getting a lot of money.
So that was the original pitch.”
“They wanted unknowns.
We threw out of very wide net.
We wanted them to be over 18, but we wanted them to look 16.
We tested Joyce Hyser and the executives were pretty unanimous.
They felt she was really beautiful.
Then we dressed her up as a man.
They almost bought it!
So I called Mesa High School in Tempe and told them we’re making a high school movie.
We wanted to do some research.
I told the actors to dress young, but they all just stared at me.
I said, ‘Okay, f it.
Let’s just go.’
We sat in a couple of classes.
We mixed it up, talked to everybody.
Everyone wore tons of makeup, a lot of dressed like Madonna.
Nobody questioned any members of the cast.
No one said, ‘You’re not a high school student.’
They didn’t even ask me.
I was probably 25 at that point.”
The climactic moment in the movie is when Terry reveals her gender to Rick at the prom.
That meant Hyser had to appear nude from the waist up.
“I believed that we had to get Joyce’s shirt off.
I don’t think she could convince Rick that she was actually a woman otherwise.
All of that was just Rick thinking, ‘I really feel for this guy.
I like this guy.
This guy is trying to impress me.
I like this friendship, I can do it.’
I wanted to show that Rick wasn’t homophobic.
I talked to Joyce about it and told her to keep an open mind.
If it grew out of the characters, it would feel absolutely real in the moment, not exploitative.
Both she and Clayton said it was a great scene and exactly what the scene had to be.
I was relieved.”
With a mere $5 million budget,Just One of the Guyswas released on April 26, 1985.
It was among the top-grossing movies in the country for four weeks.
“It knocked a bunch of action pictures down to lower numbers.
So it was a very profitable success.
We have two great ideas for sequels.
Me and Joyce and Toni came up with them.
We want to do it.”
