Just like “She’s All That” before it, the remake also includes teenagers breaking into impressive choreography they should never know.
While they may not be dancing to Fatboy Slim’s “The Rockafeller Skank” in the gender-flipped “She’s All That” remake, fans can rest assured knowing the movie does still have an epic prom night dance-off.
In the original 1999 film, the cast took a backseat to a team of professional dancers during the big climax for a truly iconic number. Why would all these teenagers know such an intricately-choreographed routine? They wouldn’t! But it was still fun to watch.
Flash forward 22 years later and here we are again. In “He’s All That” it’s TikTok sensation Addison Rae who’s tasked with making over a drab male classmate (“Cobra Kai” star Tanner Buchanan) into a fab prom king. And while he got to sit out the big dance number, Rae is front and center for a routine choreographed by Jamal Sims.
“I mean, what an incredible choreographer to have join us on this, it was so much fun, all of us just had the best time,” Rae told TooFab ahead of the film’s Netflix debut. “I know Tanner didn’t really get to be a part of that process too much, but speaking for the rest of the cast, I think we all just had such a blast.”
“Not everyone on the cast really danced much before and so we got to do lots of dance classes together which is really fun,” she added, “and I grew up as a dancer, so I had a blast just being able to dance with people that I got to work with and I think they also really enjoyed that too.”
Buchanan said he was actually “extremely disappointed” he didn’t get to participate in the scene, saying dancing was actually what got him into acting in the first place.
“I’ve been dancing since I’ve been five, so I was a little disappointed but I came that day and supported everybody and got to watch,” he added. “It was hard because all I wanted to do was jump in when everybody else was dancing, but we had to make our day and get the shots done so I couldn’t jump in.”
Costar Annie Jacob told TooFab she started dancing at a “really young age,” but took a break from it and spent most of the pandemic sitting on her couch. She said she worried she wasn’t going to be in the proper shape required for the routine.
“But then I met Jamal, who’s our choreographer, and I fan-girled so hard,” she added. “So there was a little bit of pressure when he was choreographing, but he just made it so easy and so great and it was, I had the most fun.”
The new movie features cameos from a pair of stars from the original: Laney Boggs herself Rachael Leigh Cook and Matthew Lillard, who played reality TV star Brock Hudson. A majority of the cast, however, weren’t even born when the first movie dropped. That’s right — Rae, 20, was born the following year, in 2000, while 22-year-old Buchanan wasn’t even two months old when “He’s All That” was released.
That being said, they assured TooFab they’ve at least seen the teen classic in the years since.
“My mom was a big fan of the movie so she made me watch it when I was little, which, thanks mom!’ Addison said. “And then I watched it plenty of more times right before we started, just to kind of get that new perspective on it while watching it, knowing the role I was going into.”
“At least I was born. I was around,” joked Buchanan. “But yeah, I’m a big rom com fan and romantic movie fan so I’d seen it multiple times. And then again I watched it multiple times again before we started just to you know make sure we had, you know the essence of the original coming into you know the reimagining of it.”
Jacob said she was familiar with the first movie from seeing it on TV a lot growing up. She said she remembered being struck by the “great chemistry” between Freddie Prinze Jr. and Cook, who “has not aged.”
For Isabella Crovetti — who plays Tanner’s younger sister and celebrated her Sweet 16 on the set of “He’s All That” — the original was totally foreign.
“I didn’t grow up with the movie like I grew up with stuff like ‘Clueless,’ ‘Mean Girls,’ ‘Legally Blonde,'” Crovetti told TooFab. “Before I got the audition, maybe like seven months ago, I found out about the movie and I’d watched it so it was fairly new to me.”
“He’s All That” hits Netflix on Friday, August 27.
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