49 Fun Facts About She's the Man

She's the Man is a modern retelling of which Shakespeare play?

Twelfth Night supplies the twins and the girl-disguised-as-a-boy plot; two of the film's writers had already turned The Taming of the Shrew into 10 Things I Hate About You.

What is the name of the elite boarding school Viola infiltrates while posing as her brother?

Illyria Prep takes its name from Illyria, the Adriatic coastal setting of the Shakespeare play; historically Illyria was a region of the western Balkans.

Which school does Viola originally attend, and later beat in the climactic soccer match?

Cornwall Prep is Viola's own school; it cuts the girls' team and the boys' coach refuses to let the girls try out, which sets the whole scheme in motion.

Which college soccer team does Viola dream of playing for?

North Carolina Tar Heels: asked early on whether Michigan would offer more playing time, Viola says it has always been about wearing Carolina blue.

Where does the real Sebastian secretly go instead of enrolling at his new school?

Sebastian sneaks off to London, with his band, to play a gig, leaving his place at his new school empty for Viola to take.

Which friend gives Viola the makeover that turns her into 'Sebastian'?

Paul, her hairdresser friend, turns her into her brother, then stages a scene at the pizzeria so the soccer team takes 'Sebastian' for a ladies' man.

What is the name of the local pizzeria where the awkward double date takes place?

Cesario's hosts both the staged scene that makes 'Sebastian' look like a ladies' man and the awkward double date; Cesario is the alias Viola takes when she poses as a man in the Shakespeare play.

Where does the coach place 'Sebastian' after a poor showing at soccer tryouts?

Second string is where Coach Dinklage puts 'Sebastian' after a poor tryout, so Viola strikes a deal: Duke trains her, and she talks him up to Olivia.

Malcolm, the nerd investigating 'Sebastian', has a tarantula named after which character in the Shakespeare play behind She's the Man?

The tarantula is named Malvolio, after Olivia's pompous steward in the play; Malcolm's own surname, Festes, nods to Feste, the fool.

Duke is dismayed to be assigned which classmate as his lab partner?

Eunice Bates is the name Duke draws, while Olivia, the girl he wanted, is paired with 'Sebastian' instead, which is how she comes to fall for the wrong roommate.

At the Junior League carnival, Viola is sent to work a shift at which attraction?

The kissing booth is where Viola, back in girl mode, kisses Duke; moments later he brawls with her ex, Justin, at the same carnival.

How does Viola finally prove to everyone on the pitch that she is a girl?

She flashes her breasts after being told that wearing a wig proves nothing; Coach Dinklage then keeps her in the match, declaring that his school does not discriminate based on gender.

What social event does Viola's mother Daphne want her to take part in?

A debutante ball is Daphne's obsession; the story's last big scene is that ball, where Viola arrives on Duke's arm and Olivia on the real Sebastian's.

What falls out of 'Sebastian's' boot as she unpacks in the dorm?

Tampons: Viola claims she gets terrible nosebleeds and that Beckham uses them all the time, then pushes one up her nostril to prove it.

According to Amanda Bynes, why did producers hesitate to cast Channing Tatum?

He was much older than the others, the producers objected, but Bynes fought for him anyway, insisting 'every girl will love him'.

At the pizzeria, 'Sebastian' wins the soccer team's respect by loudly dumping which character?

Monique, the real Sebastian's girlfriend, comes in looking for him, so Viola ends the relationship on his behalf at full volume, and the watching players cheer.

Which former professional footballer plays Coach Dinklage?

Vinnie Jones plays Coach Dinklage; as a Wimbledon midfielder he helped the unfancied 'Crazy Gang' beat league champions Liverpool 1-0 in the 1988 FA Cup final.

Who plays Principal Horatio Gold?

David Cross plays Principal Gold, who halts the big match with a megaphone to announce that Sebastian is really a girl, only to be proved wrong within seconds.

Julie Hagerty, who plays Viola's mother Daphne, made her name as Elaine in which 1980 comedy?

Airplane! cast Julie Hagerty as Elaine Dickinson, the stewardess who ends up helping her jittery ex-boyfriend land a jet after bad fish fells the crew; she returned for the 1982 sequel.

Robert Hoffman, who plays Viola's ex Justin, starred as Chase Collins in which dance sequel?

Step Up 2: The Streets gave Robert Hoffman the lead in a series launched by his She's the Man co-star Channing Tatum, who returns for a cameo.

Alexandra Breckenridge, who plays the real Sebastian's girlfriend, later starred as Mel Monroe in which series?

Virgin River cast Alexandra Breckenridge as Mel Monroe, a nurse practitioner who leaves Los Angeles for a remote Northern California town to start over, then falls for the local bartender.

Amanda Crew, who plays Viola's friend Kia, later played Monica Hall on which HBO comedy?

Silicon Valley cast Amanda Crew as Monica Hall, who starts as a billionaire investor's assistant, co-founds the venture firm Bream-Hall and finally joins Pied Piper itself.

Jessica Lucas, who plays Yvonne, went on to appear in which 2008 found-footage horror film?

Cloverfield cast Jessica Lucas as Lily, one of the friends fleeing a giant creature in Manhattan; she is hurried onto the first evacuation helicopter while her friends wait for the next.

Emily Perkins, who plays Duke's lab partner, is known to horror fans as Brigitte in which Canadian werewolf film?

Ginger Snaps cast Emily Perkins as Brigitte Fitzgerald, a death-obsessed teen trying to save her sister Ginger after an animal attack; she came back for both follow-up films.

Laura Ramsey, who plays Olivia, starred in which 2008 horror film from a Scott Smith novel?

The Ruins cast Laura Ramsey as Stacy, one of the American tourists trapped on a Mayan temple by flesh-eating vines; Scott Smith adapted his own novel for the screen.

Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith, two of She's the Man's screenwriters, also wrote which 2001 comedy?

Legally Blonde was adapted by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith from Amanda Brown's novel, which drew on her own time as a fashion-loving blonde at Stanford Law School.

Director Andy Fickman followed She's the Man with which 2007 Dwayne Johnson comedy?

The Game Plan (2007) paired Fickman with Dwayne Johnson as a quarterback who discovers he has a daughter; the two reunited on Race to Witch Mountain in 2009.

Duke rallies his team with a Shakespeare line that begins 'Be not afraid of' what?

Greatness: 'some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them' is bait in a forged love letter in the play, but Duke turns it into a pep talk to keep Viola in the match.

Which film topped the box office the weekend She's the Man opened?

V for Vendetta opened with $25.6 million in North America in March 2006, while She's the Man took $10.7 million in fourth place; the comedy still grossed $57 million worldwide, more than double its budget.

What does Principal Gold wrongly decide the new student 'Sebastian' is hiding?

Baldness: seeing 'Sebastian' fiddle with a wig, he waves away her 'scalp condition' excuse, confides that he is thinning too and urges her to accept herself as 'a baldy'.

While coaching Duke to make small talk with girls, Viola names which cheese as her favourite?

Gouda: Viola invents 'Do you like cheese?' as a practice question, and Duke later tries the same line on a real date, where it earns only a cringe.

Amanda Bynes starred as Holly Tyler in which WB sitcom?

What I Like About You cast Bynes as Holly Tyler, who stays in New York with her older sister Val, played by Jennie Garth, when their father's job takes him to Japan.

The Amanda Show was a spin-off of which Nickelodeon series?

All That hired Bynes after a Nickelodeon producer spotted her at a children's comedy camp at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, and by 1999 she had a show of her own.

In which 2007 movie musical did Amanda Bynes play Penny Pingleton?

Hairspray cast Bynes as Penny Pingleton, Tracy's sheltered best friend, who falls for Seaweed despite the disapproval of her stern, devout mother.

Channing Tatum's first job on camera was as a dancer in a 2000 music video for which singer?

Ricky Martin's 'She Bangs' video features Tatum as a shirtless bartender and dancer; before it he had dropped out of college, where he held a football scholarship, and worked in construction.

Which 2012 Channing Tatum film is loosely based on his own life at 18?

Magic Mike draws on Tatum's time as a stripper at a Tampa club at 18; in 2010 he said he planned a film about that life, then co-produced it and took the title role.

The English-born actor who plays Coach Dinklage played international football for which other country?

Wales could pick him because a Welsh grandparent made him eligible, and he went on to captain the side.

In the Shakespeare play behind She's the Man, how are the twins Viola and Sebastian separated?

In a shipwreck: Viola is washed ashore believing her twin Sebastian has drowned; the film swaps the wreck for a brother skipping school and a sister in a wig.

What subtitle does the Shakespeare play behind She's the Man carry?

What You Will was already part of the title when law student John Manningham wrote up a 1602 performance in his diary, some two decades before the play was printed.

In the Shakespeare play behind She's the Man, a forged letter tricks Olivia's steward into wearing what?

Yellow stockings, cross-gartered, is what the letter forged by Maria claims Olivia loves; it also bids the steward smile constantly, so Olivia thinks him mad.

In the Shakespeare play behind She's the Man, who speaks the opening line 'If music be the food of love, play on'?

Orsino, the lovesick duke, opens the play by asking his musicians for so much music that his appetite for love will sicken and die.

How does the real Sebastian prove who he is when Principal Gold announces he is a girl?

He drops his pants in front of the stands, which settles the matter; the twins then swap places for the second half.

Which coach refuses to let Viola's girls' team try out for the boys' squad?

Coach Pistonek runs the boys' team at Viola's original school; her boyfriend Justin backs him, which ends their relationship.

Which 2003 comedy paired Amanda Bynes with Colin Firth as her long-lost father?

What a Girl Wants cast Bynes as Daphne Reynolds, an American teen who crosses the Atlantic to find her father, Colin Firth's Lord Henry Dashwood, and promptly upends his run for office.

Which of Duke's friends ends up dating his oddball lab partner?

Toby tells her she is amazing, and that he is not ashamed to say so, after the big match; his namesake in the play, Sir Toby Belch, also ends the story newly married.

Which actor plays the real Sebastian Hastings, Viola's twin brother?

James Kirk plays the real Sebastian, who comes home a day early and unwittingly walks into the double life Viola has built in his name.

According to Amanda Bynes, the then-unknown Channing Tatum had just made a commercial for which drink?

Mountain Dew was the brand: Bynes told Paper in 2018 that Tatum had just shot a commercial for it, and that she fought to cast him, insisting 'This guy's a star.'

Principal Gold shares his first name, Horatio, with a character in which Shakespeare tragedy?

Hamlet: Horatio is the prince's loyal friend, the one left alive at the end to tell his story; the comedy gives the name to its bumbling headmaster.

She's the Man producer Lauren Shuler Donner also produced which superhero film series, starting in 2000?

X-Men: she produced the series from the 2000 original, and has said that watching her husband, director Richard Donner, stage action films gave her the confidence to take it on.