Reality Bites - Production

Production

In 1991, producer Michael Shamberg had an idea to make a film about people in their twenties. He read a screenplay entitled Blue By You written by Helen Childress on spec in 1990. He liked it and met with her where she proceeded to tell him about her life and friends and their struggle to find work during a recession in the United States at the time. For three years she wrote and rewrote Reality Bites, generating 70 different drafts. Childress decided to use her friends, their personalities and experiences as the basis for her film.

The film's producers saw the pilot episode for The Ben Stiller Show and approached Stiller to direct it, but not act in it. He signed on to direct in 1992 and worked with Childress for nine to ten months developing the script. Initially, Childress, working with producer Stacey Sher, had figured out the characters of Lelaina and Troy but could not come up with a credible character to complete the love triangle. Stiller suggested that he could play that third person. As a result, the Michael character changed from a 35-year-old advertising executive trying to market Japanese candy bars in America to a television executive in his twenties. They also changed the structure of the film. Originally, Vickie, Sammy and Troy had more fleshed out storylines, but Stiller felt that he could not tell them fully and decided to focus on the relationship between Lelaina and Troy.

By December 1992, Childress and Stiller had a script that was ready to be filmed for TriStar Pictures, but the studio put it into turnaround. Sher, Stiller and Childress managed to convince the Film Commission of Texas to fund a location scouting trip to Houston despite no studio backing, no budget and no cast. The film had been turned down by all the Hollywood studios because it tried to capture the Generation X market like Singles, which was not a box office success. When Sher, Stiller and Childress arrived in Houston, they received a phone call informing them that Winona Ryder had read the script, wanted to do it and that Universal Pictures had agreed to finance the film.

After completing several period pieces, Ryder was drawn to Reality Bites because she was looking "for something a little more contemporary because I really wanted to wear blue jeans for a change." She read the script in one sitting while making The House of the Spirits and "found it very true to life." She further speculated in an interview, "I think my character is very close to what I would probably have ended up as if I hadn't become an actress". Hawke was at this point unhappy with the direction his career was taking; the actor recalled that his career was in a lull after the buzz from Dead Poets Society had faded. Ryder was a fan of his work and stipulated in her contract that her involvement in the film was dependent on Hawke starring opposite her.

Garofalo knew Stiller from working together on The Ben Stiller Show and the film's producers felt that her style of comedy was perfect for the character of Vickie. She said that Parker Posey, Anne Heche, and Gwyneth Paltrow were all up for the role. The studio wanted Paltrow, but Ryder supported Garofalo for the role after making a connection with her. Before filming began, however, Garofalo was fired from the production because Stiller did not like her attitude during rehearsal. Garofalo was rehired after Ryder stepped in on her behalf. Garofalo stated later that she has a really poor work ethic and hates to rehearse. Stiller met Steve Zahn through Hawke, with whom Zahn was starring in a play, and he was impressed by how funny Zahn was. The actor went to Los Angeles, California and tested for the film. He felt strongly about playing a gay character coming out of the closet.

Principal photography lasted 42 days on a budget of $11.5 million. The filmmakers shot the exteriors in Houston (including a scene on top of the Two Shell Plaza building) where the film is set but most of the interiors were shot in Los Angeles, because it was cheaper to do so there. During filming, Stiller encouraged Childress to be on location and talk with the actors about their characters.