99 Fun Facts About Liar Liar

Who directed Liar Liar?

Tom Shadyac. After a 2007 bike crash he gave away much of his fortune and swapped his Los Angeles mansion for a Malibu trailer park.

Liar Liar's writers first built Fletcher's big court case around which crime, before deciding it wasn't funny?

Murder. The writers swapped the killing for a cheating wife chasing half her husband's fortune, a case a comedy could play for laughs.

In Liar Liar, Fletcher tests his curse by trying to say a blue pen is which color?

Red. He strains to say it and shouts 'royal blue' instead, then loses a wrestling match with the pen when he tries to write the lie down.

What does Fletcher call the tickling hand monster he chases Max with in Liar Liar?

The Claw. Audrey's new boyfriend Jerry later tries his own version on Max at the airport, and it falls painfully flat.

Why does Fletcher miss Max's birthday party in Liar Liar?

He is sleeping with his boss. He phones Audrey claiming a problem on a new case, and the broken promise drives Max to make his birthday wish.

In Liar Liar, what happens to Fletcher's car after a traffic cop pulls him over?

It is impounded. He gets it back with a fresh scratch, and when he starts to threaten the attendant the only honest answer he can give is 'Nothing!'

In Liar Liar, Fletcher's client Samantha Cole wants to get around what?

A prenuptial agreement. It cuts her off with nothing if she is unfaithful, and her husband's lawyers have her affair on tape.

In Liar Liar, Fletcher objects to a tape for which honest reason?

It's devastating to my case. The judge overrules him on the spot, and Fletcher, still unable to fib, replies 'Good call!'

In Liar Liar, Audrey considers moving with Max to which city?

Boston. Her boyfriend Jerry has a job waiting there and proposes, and she warns Fletcher that one more broken promise to Max will settle it.

In Liar Liar, Miranda tries to get Fletcher fired by baiting him into insulting whom?

Mr. Allan, a senior partner. Fletcher unloads a string of honest insults, and the boss roars with laughter and says he loves a good roast.

In Liar Liar, where does Fletcher beat himself up in an attempt to delay the trial?

The men's room. The judge offers to adjourn unless Fletcher feels able to continue, and the curse forces him to admit that he does.

What fact lets Fletcher win Samantha Cole's case honestly in Liar Liar?

She married as a minor. Samantha had doctored her age to wed at 17 without her parents' consent, so Fletcher argues the contract she signed was never valid.

After Fletcher wins her case in Liar Liar, what does Samantha Cole go after next?

Custody of the children. Her husband is plainly the devoted parent, and she wants them mainly for the extra child support.

Why is Fletcher held in contempt after the verdict in Liar Liar?

He demands the decision be reversed. Warned he is one word from contempt, Fletcher shouts 'I hold myself in contempt!' and is dragged off to a cell.

Who bails Fletcher out of jail in Liar Liar?

Greta. His honesty had cost him her goodwill earlier that day, but she posted bail after hearing he had gone 'all noble' at the trial.

In Liar Liar, what does Fletcher commandeer at the airport to chase Audrey and Max's plane?

A mobile stairway. He gets the plane to stop, then crashes and ends the chase on a stretcher with both legs broken.

In Liar Liar's final scene, a year on, what does Max say he wished for?

Rollerblades. The lights come up on his parents kissing, so Fletcher assumes Max wished them back together, and gets a flat no.

Jim Carrey pops up at the end of Liar Liar as which of his In Living Color characters?

Fire Marshall Bill. He stands in the crowd of rescue workers behind the lead actors after the runway crash, a background gag that is easy to miss.

In Liar Liar, Fletcher tells a traffic cop that why he was stopped depends on what?

How long you followed me. His exact words are 'Depends on how long you were following me', and he goes on to confess every offence of the drive.

Why does Max's 'unwish' fail to free Fletcher in Liar Liar?

He didn't mean it. Max says he truly meant the birthday wish, but only made the unwish because his dad told him to, so the curse holds.

Which future comedy director did an uncredited rewrite of Liar Liar?

Judd Apatow. A decade before directing Knocked Up he was a regular Jim Carrey collaborator, quietly punching up big studio comedies without taking a credit.

Which British actor was keen to star in Liar Liar before a personal scandal forced him out?

Hugh Grant. He was seriously interested but dropped out in the wake of the Divine Brown scandal, and the script found its way to Jim Carrey instead.

Rumor has it Jim Carrey passed on which 1997 comedy role to make Liar Liar?

Dr. Evil in Austin Powers. Director Jay Roach has dismissed the story as just a rumor, saying Mike Myers always planned to play the villain himself.

Which producer took on the Liar Liar pitch after studios all over Hollywood had rejected it?

Brian Grazer. He happened to be hunting for a movie about a lawyer when the writers dropped by his company for a general meeting, years after shelving the idea.

In Liar Liar, Max tells Fletcher that real beauty is on the inside, quoting whom?

His teacher. Fletcher shoots back that it's 'just something ugly people say', a put-down that slips out while he argues grown-ups sometimes need to lie.

Liar Liar was Universal's second-biggest three-day opener at the time, behind which film?

Jurassic Park. Part of the reason was reach: Universal booked Liar Liar aggressively, opening it in 2,845 theaters at once.

Dragged off to jail in Liar Liar, Fletcher screams that he is which sports star?

Jose Canseco. Fletcher had given Max baseball gear and promised a game of catch that evening, and being locked up means breaking his word again.

Which animated film finally broke Liar Liar's March opening-weekend record in 2002?

Ice Age. Fox had shut its hand-drawn animation studio in 2000 after Titan A.E. flopped, staking its future on computer animation instead, and this hit proved the gamble right.

Liar Liar opened at number one, knocking which 1997 re-release off the top of the chart?

Return of the Jedi. The special edition lost more than half its audience in its second weekend and slid to third, behind a newly opened music biopic.

Which Jennifer Lopez film knocked Liar Liar off the top of the box office after three weeks?

Anaconda. Lopez's biopic Selena had opened in second place behind Liar Liar three weeks earlier, and her giant-snake thriller finally pushed it off the top.

Which film was Jim Carrey already attached to when he made Liar Liar?

The Truman Show. By most accounts director Peter Weir waited a year for Carrey rather than recast, though Liar Liar's writers heard he said yes because Truman's script wasn't ready.

Liar Liar has been likened to an episode of which anthology series, where a haunted car makes a salesman honest?

The Twilight Zone. In the 1961 episode 'The Whole Truth', the salesman ends up palming the cursed car off on Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

Reviewing Liar Liar, Roger Ebert wrote of a 'suspicion' that Jim Carrey was doing what?

Growing on him. He added 'or perhaps it is a fear' and gave the film three stars, a wry admission from a critic who had called one of the comic's first hits 'a long, unfunny slog'.

In Liar Liar's end-credit outtakes, co-star Swoosie Kurtz ambushes Jim Carrey by shouting which insult?

Overactor! Carrey cracks up mid-scene, Kurtz admits the director put her up to it, and he jokes 'they're onto me'.

For Liar Liar, Jim Carrey received a nomination at the 55th edition of which awards?

The Golden Globes. He was up for best actor in a musical or comedy and lost to Jack Nicholson, who won for As Good as It Gets.

Liar Liar was the second of Jim Carrey's three films with its director; which came first?

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The 1994 hit made an instant movie star of Carrey, until then best known as a sketch comic on TV's In Living Color.

Which actress, later ER's Abby Lockhart, plays Fletcher's ex-wife Audrey in Liar Liar?

Maura Tierney. When the curse makes Fletcher blurt out 'I'm a bad father', her Audrey answers that he isn't, 'when you show up'.

Who plays Fletcher's gold-digging client Samantha Cole in Liar Liar?

Jennifer Tilly. Already an Oscar nominee for Bullets Over Broadway, she went on to win a World Series of Poker bracelet in the 2005 ladies' event.

Which star of The Princess Bride plays Audrey's new boyfriend Jerry in Liar Liar?

Cary Elwes. He has said the part came by pure chance: he asked Jim Carrey what he was making next, and Carrey floated his name to the director.

Amanda Donohoe, Liar Liar's scheming Miranda, played lawyer C.J. Lamb in the early 1990s on which TV drama?

L.A. Law. In a 1991 episode her character kissed a female colleague, a moment billed at the time as the first lesbian kiss on American television.

Anne Haney, Fletcher's long-suffering secretary in Liar Liar, played a family court supervisor in which 1993 film?

Mrs. Doubtfire. Haney was a late starter who took up commercials and local theater in Atlanta in the 1970s and reached Hollywood only in her mid-forties, after she was widowed in 1980.

In Liar Liar, what legal advice does Fletcher scream at a client who has just robbed an ATM?

Stop breaking the law. The client has knocked over another ATM, this time at knifepoint, and the furious advice is one thing the curse lets Fletcher say, because it is true.

Which Eddie Murphy comedy did Liar Liar's director make the year before?

The Nutty Professor. Makeup artist Rick Baker turned Eddie Murphy into nearly the whole Klump family for its dinner-table scenes, the professor's mother and grandmother included.

In Liar Liar, what spills out of Fletcher's glove box as his final confession to the traffic cop?

Unpaid parking tickets. He has already rattled off every moving violation of the drive when the officer asks 'Is that all?', and he opens the glove box and pleads, 'Be gentle.'

Which writing duo penned the Liar Liar screenplay?

Paul Guay and Stephen Mazur. Mazur has said the idea began as a story about a little kid who promised his grandmother not to lie, before they rebuilt it around an adult.

In Liar Liar, Fletcher's secretary quits after the curse makes him admit the truth about what?

Her raise. He had told her the firm would not allow it for fear of jealousy among the other secretaries, when really he did not want to pay it out of his own pocket.

Which 2003 film was Jim Carrey's third and final collaboration with Liar Liar's director?

Bruce Almighty. It showed God's phone number as a real one instead of a fictional 555 line, and people who shared the digits were swamped with calls asking for God.

Liar Liar was hailed as Jim Carrey's comeback after which 1996 film disappointed?

The Cable Guy. Critics had recoiled from his dark turn as a menacing cable installer, and the likable Liar Liar was greeted as a return to form.

In Liar Liar, what does Fletcher point out to Max after making his runway promise?

The wish had already expired. Max made it at 8:15 the night before and it is now 8:45, so Fletcher could have lied for half an hour and chose honesty anyway.

Three days after Liar Liar opened, Jim Carrey joked about his weekend while presenting at which awards show?

The Oscars put Jim Carrey on stage to present the visual effects award just after the film's release. Liar Liar had opened to more than $31 million, so his opening question about everyone's weekend brought the house down.

On what did Liar Liar's co-writer first jot down the idea of a liar forced to tell the truth?

A napkin held the first scribbled note of the premise, years before the film was made. Its author says he has always been amazed that people can look straight at him and lie.

Which Bill Murray comedy does a Liar Liar writer cite as proof that audiences need no explanation for the magic?

Groundhog Day once considered a curse from a jilted ex to explain its time loop, then left the cause a mystery. Liar Liar likewise never says why Max's birthday wish actually works.

The actor who plays Jerry in Liar Liar had earlier taken the title role in which Mel Brooks spoof?

Robin Hood: Men in Tights made him a swashbuckling hero four years before Liar Liar cast him as the bland new boyfriend. The 1993 spoof was also Dave Chappelle's film debut.

Which biopic opened on the same day as Liar Liar and finished well behind it that weekend?

Selena, the Jennifer Lopez drama about the murdered Tejano star, also reached US theaters on March 21, 1997. It took about $11.6 million that weekend against more than $31 million for Jim Carrey's comedy.

In Liar Liar, how does the firm's board react when the cursed Fletcher truthfully insults everyone in the room?

They laugh it off, mistaking his brutally accurate insults for a lighthearted roast. The scheme to get him fired by goading him in front of the top brass backfires completely.

While writing Liar Liar, the screenwriters pictured Steve Martin or which other star as Fletcher?

Tom Hanks fitted their brief of a physical comedian who could also tug at the heartstrings. Once Jim Carrey signed on, the script was reworked as a much broader comedy.

Liar Liar's director began his career as the youngest joke writer ever hired by which veteran comedian?

Bob Hope took him on as a staff joke writer when he was just 24. Liar Liar was his third hit comedy in four years as a director.

In Liar Liar's closing birthday scene, what are Fletcher and Audrey doing when the lights come back on?

Kissing in the dark, the divorced pair give Max a surprise as he turns six, a year after the main story. He quickly denies that this reunion was what he asked for over the candles.

In Liar Liar, Fletcher Reede is a fast-talking lawyer living and working in which American city?

Los Angeles is both the setting and the place where the film was shot, between July and October 1996. The ending keeps Audrey and Max in California instead of sending them east.

In Liar Liar, what does Fletcher badly injure when his frantic airport chase ends in a crash?

Both legs are hurt in the crash, so he makes his promise to spend more time with Max while lying on a stretcher. Audrey then decides against moving away.

Liar Liar came from Imagine Entertainment, co-founded by its producer and which sitcom star turned director?

Ron Howard set up Imagine in 1985 with his producing partner. The company took on the Liar Liar pitch years after studios across Hollywood had turned it down.

Liar Liar was voted favorite comedy film at which ceremony, hosted that year by Reba McEntire and Ray Romano?

People's Choice Awards voters named Liar Liar the favorite comedy film of 1997 at a ceremony in Pasadena. Harrison Ford was voted top film actor the same night.

Swoosie Kurtz, Liar Liar's Dana Appleton, later played a mother named Joyce in which CBS sitcom?

Mike & Molly cast her as Joyce Flynn, mother of Molly and Victoria, from 2010 to 2016. On stage she had already won two Tony Awards.

Randall "Tex" Cobb, who plays Skull in Liar Liar, once fought for a world title in which sport?

Boxing took him all the way to a 1982 heavyweight title fight with Larry Holmes, which he lost on a one-sided decision. He went on to play a string of screen villains.

A 2001 unofficial remake of Liar Liar, in which a child's prayer stops a lawyer lying, came from which country?

India produced the Hindi comedy Kyo Kii... Main Jhuth Nahin Bolta, whose title means roughly 'Because I do not lie'. There a seven-year-old's prayer strips the lawyer of his lies.

Which Robin Williams film about a doctor did Liar Liar's director make as his very next project?

Patch Adams followed in 1998, a year after Liar Liar. The director did not work with Jim Carrey again until 2003.

Before settling on birthday candles, Liar Liar's writers considered having Max make his wish on what?

A turkey wishbone was one device the writers weighed before deciding the mechanics hardly mattered. What counted, they felt, was a heartfelt wish from an innocent kid.

One of Liar Liar's two screenwriters drew on his own past in which courtroom job?

Prosecutor was his old job in the county courts, and mentioning it in a meeting revived the long-shelved pitch. An executive replied that the company's boss wanted a film about a lawyer.

Which of these careers did Liar Liar's writers weigh up for Fletcher before making him a lawyer?

Politician was on the shortlist along with a job in real estate. The courtroom won because one of the writers knew that world and because a lawyer's work changes other people's lives.

Liar Liar began as a story about a child who promised which relative never to lie?

His grandmother was owed the promise in the first version, which followed a little kid whose honesty caused chaos. The writers switched to an adult because they did not want to write only children's films.

A Liar Liar co-star says the sound of Jim Carrey's head hitting what was kept in the self-beating scene?

The concrete floor of the soundstage met his head with a thud the cast could hear, and the noise stayed on the soundtrack. He was unhurt and went straight into another take.

Which horror series, featuring Liar Liar's Samantha Cole actress, gave the film several shout-outs in its second season?

Chucky has her playing Tiffany Valentine, a killer who has taken over the actress's own body. In season two the character pores over the star's old movies, Liar Liar among them.

Liar Liar's Audrey was played by a regular from which workplace sitcom of the late 1990s?

NewsRadio had her as reporter and producer Lisa Miller from 1995 to 1999, alongside Dave Foley and Phil Hartman. She made Liar Liar while the sitcom was in the middle of its run.

Justin Cooper, who plays Max in Liar Liar, took the lead as which famous fictional kid a year later?

Dennis the Menace was his role in the 1998 sequel Dennis the Menace Strikes Again, opposite Don Rickles and Betty White. He later left acting and became a sports radio producer.

Liar Liar is dedicated to Jason Bernard, who died soon after filming his final role as which character?

The trial judge, Marshall Stevens, was his last part. He suffered a fatal heart attack in October 1996, the month shooting wrapped, at the age of 58.

In Liar Liar, what does Fletcher smash into on the runway after forcing Audrey's plane to stop?

A baggage train ends the chase and puts him on a stretcher, where he finally makes his peace with Max. The aftermath also hides a cameo by Jim Carrey as a second character.

In Liar Liar, what prompts Audrey's boyfriend Jerry to propose and plan a move across the country?

A job offer on the East Coast leads Jerry to propose, and Audrey accepts even though they have not been together long. She hopes the move will spare Max more broken promises.

Which future star of the mermaid comedy Aquamarine made her film debut as one of Max's classmates in Liar Liar?

Sara Paxton was a child among the party guests in her first film role, nine years before she played the title mermaid in Aquamarine.

Mitchell Ryan, a top lawyer at Fletcher's firm in Liar Liar, played Edward Montgomery in which hit sitcom?

Dharma & Greg debuted in September 1997, six months after Liar Liar, with him as the father of Thomas Gibson's Greg. Decades earlier he was Burke Devlin in the gothic soap Dark Shadows.

Before Liar Liar, its writing duo had just one screen credit, on which kids' comedy from 1994?

The Little Rascals, the big-screen update of the Our Gang shorts, was their only credit when the lawyer comedy sold. They wrote it with the film's director, Penelope Spheeris.

A Liar Liar writer feared which radio shock jock's biopic, released two weeks earlier, would crush his comedy?

Private Parts opened on March 7, 1997, and its buzz left the writer depressed about his own film's chances. Instead it had fallen to fifth place by the weekend Liar Liar arrived.

Liar Liar took the March opening-weekend record from which film, a hit seven years earlier?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had held the March record since its release on March 30, 1990. Liar Liar's $31.4 million debut then stood as the month's best for five years.

Liar Liar's debut was the second-biggest for Imagine Entertainment, behind which Mel Gibson hit?

Ransom, the kidnap thriller released in November 1996, had the company's biggest opening. Liar Liar extended a hot streak that had already run for about 20 months.

Krista Allen, the woman in Liar Liar's elevator scene, later spent a season in the cast of which drama?

Baywatch added her as Jenna Avid during its Hawaii years, from 2000 to 2001. Before that she was a regular on the soap Days of Our Lives.

Which Saturday Night Live cast member of the late 1990s appears in Liar Liar as a character named Jane?

Cheri Oteri had joined Saturday Night Live in 1995 and was in her second season when the film came out. She later played reporter Gail Hailstorm in the Scary Movie series.

A Liar Liar writer says Jim Carrey performs as though he must outdo which slapstick legend?

Jerry Lewis was the benchmark the writer named when describing the manic energy that replaced the slyer lead once in the running. He recalled the star asking for take after take, then improvising on his improvisations.

Which suggestion for a Liar Liar sequel did one of its writers say was treated like heresy?

Recasting the lead horrified his agents, because it was Jim Carrey or nothing. The star was not making sequels at the time, so the follow-up the writers had pitched went no further.

Liar Liar had the widest release of any Jim Carrey film until which later comedy?

Me, Myself & Irene finally opened in more theaters in June 2000. Liar Liar's 2,845 locations were also a record for a Universal release at the time.

Liar Liar's Samantha Cole actress has long voiced neighbor Bonnie Swanson on which animated sitcom?

Family Guy has had her voicing Bonnie since 1999, two years after she played the gold-digging divorcee. She is also a World Series of Poker bracelet winner.

Liar Liar's pitch may have flopped because executives pictured which Saturday Night Live star's fibbing character?

Jon Lovitz played Tommy Flanagan, the Pathological Liar, whose tall tales were a running sketch in the late 1980s. One writer suspects studios assumed the film would simply be that character.

Gary Paulsen, who wrote the 2011 middle-school comedy Liar, Liar, is best known for which survival novel?

Hatchet, his 1987 story of a boy surviving alone after a plane crash, was a Newbery Medal runner-up. Liar, Liar swaps the wilderness for the school life of a 14-year-old fibber named Kevin.

In Gary Paulsen's novel Liar, Liar, how does Kevin get his partner to do all the work on a school project?

He fakes an illness, telling classmate Katie that he has a severe chronic disease so that she will carry the project. It is one of a chain of lies that soon runs away from him.

In Gary Paulsen's novel Liar, Liar, who finally shows 14-year-old Kevin the value of telling the truth?

A child he babysits, just four years old, is the one who gets through to him. Kevin then sets out to untangle every lie he has told at school and at home.

In Gary Paulsen's novel Liar, Liar, what does Kevin start doing to spend more time near his crush, Tina?

Skipping classes is his plan, backed by creative excuses that his teachers are unlikely to believe. He also pretends to care about student government to get into her circle.

In the sequel to Gary Paulsen's Liar, Liar, how have Kevin's parents punished his lying?

His allowance is cut off, so he launches a string of money-making schemes, beginning with hosting poker games. Like his lies in the first book, they soon collapse around him.

Chip Mayer, Liar Liar's Kenneth Falk, was a stand-in lead for one season of which 1980s car-chase series?

The Dukes of Hazzard brought him in as cousin Vance Duke for most of season five, while the original stars sat out a salary dispute.

Jarrad Paul, who has a bit part in Liar Liar, later co-wrote which Jim Carrey comedy?

Yes Man, the 2008 film about a man who starts agreeing to everything, lists him among its three screenwriters. He appears in it too, 11 years after playing a pimply teen opposite the same star.

Jim Carrey said that playing Fletcher in Liar Liar sent him home each night in what state?

Total exhaustion was the price of a part he described as a constant suppression of angst, with his character freaking out all the time. The shoot lasted more than three months.

Roughly how much was Jim Carrey reportedly paid for Liar Liar, on a pay-or-play deal that rushed it into production?

$20 million was his reported fee, and the guarantee meant things moved very fast once he signed. One writer said he worked for every dollar, throwing himself body and soul into the role.