Andrea von Foerster, music supervisor: “You Make My Dreams” can start and stop anywhere, and it will be stuck in your head for the rest of your life. It’s perfect. We wanted Daryl Hall and John Oates on camera, maybe sitting on a stoop, and at first it was a yes but then it became a no, and we decided to just do it without them in it. I’m really glad we did. We all sang the song all day long. No one got sick of it. It was the best day of shooting: We were downtown, outside of the LA courthouse; we were controlling the fountain; we had the UCLA Marching Band, and all these people dancing. It looked like an Old Navy commercial.
Gordon-Levitt: I was just so intent on not fucking it up because I’m not a professional dancer, but I was surrounded by this huge troupe of professional dancers. And for them, all this stuff—this routine that I’ve been practicing in my apartment at night for weeks, just, like, making sure that I could remember what comes after what—is super easy. I think the choreographer showed it to them like once or twice in the morning, and they could all just do it.
Deschanel: I definitely felt FOMO not being in that scene! You know what’s funny is I was with my band that day—I had to fly up to do a show at some festival or something. Marc said, “I actually was thinking about some way to put you in that scene, but it makes sense that you weren’t in it!” But and I got to work with Michael Rooney, who was the film’s amazing choreographer, in a music video for “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” which kind of made up for it.
Webb: Joe was super excited about doing a dance sequence. I wasn’t sure he was going to be, but he loved it. We called that sequence “The Best Day Ever,” and we had to rush it because the second half of the day was dedicated to what we called “The Worst Day Ever.” It was a sad dance. We screened it for the audience, they hated it, we cut it out. I think it was just score, there was no song. Maybe that was the problem.
High hopes at the rooftop engagement party
This is the scene that gave birth to the now-classic “Expectations / Reality” meme. It was a lovely party or a devastating shock to the system, depending on your side of the split-screen.