Full disclaimer: My Best Friend's Wedding is one of my favorite films of all time. I think it's a perfect movie. Julia Roberts is perfect. Cameron Diaz is perfect. That ending — with the perfect Rupert Everett — is perfect.
So you'll understand my joy on Thursday morning when Entertainment Weekly unveiled its latest cover featuring an utterly delightful article reuniting the cast of the 1997 rom-com.
Look how beautiful and color-coordinated they all look! And Dermot Mulroney's suit? My god.
The reunion was part of the magazine's first-ever rom-com-themed issue, which included stories from other classics like When Harry Met Sally... and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Together, the cast of My Best Friend's Wedding posed for a series of bridal party–themed glamour shots (be sure to check out the full gallery) and reminisced about their time filming the movie in Chicago in the summer of 1996.
"We all got on so well straightaway. And everybody clicked onscreen straightaway, and you could feel that," Everett, who played George Downes, told EW. "And for me, it was magical. But the last time I saw it, it kind of made me cry just thinking of how magic that time was, that summer."
Roberts said she decided to do the film because she thought it was clever and funny, and loved all the physical comedy involved.
"Lots of falling down and falling through things, falling all over myself, falling over Dermot," she joked.
But Everett revealed he had initially been reluctant to sign on to the film. "When I got the part, it was literally two lines in the script," he said. "I thought it was kind of a career-icide move at first."
But director P.J. Hogan gradually enlarged the part of George during filming, and Everett said the film ended up being "a complete changing point" in his life.
Diaz, who played Robert's love rival Kimmy Wallace, also said the movie helped change her career for the better. "It was, like, a huge break for me," she said.
She revealed she'd been absolutely terrified to film the scene where her character sings endearingly terrible karaoke that ultimately wins over the crowd and her fiancé Michael O'Neal (Mulroney).
"I allowed the true terror of singing in front of people to be alive in me," Diaz told EW. "I wanted to run and hide, and Dermot kept me there. He said, 'You can do it, you can do it.'"
Diaz also revealed her sister-in-law Nicole Richie (the pair are married to the Madden brothers from Good Charlotte) is apparently as obsessed with the movie as I am.
"We went to Chicago, like, a year and a half ago, and she took me to every single [location]," Diaz said. "She’s like, 'Remember when you were walking down the street right here and then…' It was so much fun.
"I was like, 'Yes, I think I do.' She’s like, 'I do, and it really means a lot to me, so I would like for you to pretend like you do,'" Diaz said.
It turns out the famous scene where the characters start singing "I Say A Little Prayer" at a pre-wedding lunch wasn't originally in the script. The director added it later.
"The best part of it was when they started handing out the bibs," Diaz recalled. "And we were all like, 'What?' We were like, 'Is this happening?' They’re like, 'Yeah.'"
Mulroney also recalled filming the scene where he and Julianne Potter (Roberts) dance on a boat on the Chicago river.
He said bystanders on bridges would shout to Roberts, who was by then one of the biggest movie stars in the world.
"Then, like the eighth trip down the river somebody yells, 'Hey, Dermot!' and I was like, 'Yes!'" he recalled. "I look up and it’s, like, a friend from college, which didn’t really count. I go, 'Hi, John.'"
Hogan said that after filming wrapped the movie received negative reviews from audiences in test screenings.
In the film's original ending, which you can watch below (be warned: It's absolutely bonkers), Roberts ended up with another wedding guest (John Corbett, aka Aidan from Sex and the City).
"The focus group didn’t want Julianne to have a happy ending," Hogan said. "They still hadn’t forgiven her. They just weren’t ready for her to end up in the arms of another guy."
Studio executives then allowed Hogan and the cast to reshoot some scenes, including the bathroom confrontation between Roberts and Diaz, as well as the ending with Everett at the wedding that we all know and love.
Hogan said he decided Julianne should end up, so to speak, with her gay best friend George because "because the film really worked when Rupert was on camera."
"Rupert and Julia’s chemistry is so great," he said.
Everett — who, if you remember, signed up for what he first thought was a tiny role — said he was shocked to read the final scene.
"When I read the [final scene] I couldn’t believe it. It’s beautiful," he said. "The whole end is so wonderful and tragic in a way. It’s very, very moving."
Here, of course, is the final scene that ended up in the film. (Be warned: You will weep.)
Everett told EW he likes to think of George and Julianne like the lead characters in Will & Grace.
"We’re not living together," said Roberts. "But I live across the street."
Be sure to check out the full Entertainment Weekly piece for more behind-the-scenes secrets!