20 facts you might not know about 'There's Something About Mary'

Near as we can tell, Cameron Diaz was the choice for Mary from the beginning. She and the Farrelly brothers shared the fact that they both debuted and broke out in 1994. The Farrellys did so with Dumb & Dumber, and Diaz with The Mask. Both of those films also happen to star Jim Carrey, who was enjoying a breakout year in 1994 himself.

Dumb & Dumber had been a hit, but Kingpin had been a flop. The Farrelly brothers feared being placed in “director’s jail,” and were starting to wonder if There’s Something About Mary would be their last film they got a chance to direct. As such, they decided to let it all hang out and throw in every gag they had every wanted to put in a movie, no matter how gross. We know now it wouldn’t be their last film (and Peter would weirdly end up winning a Best Picture Oscar), but at the time, they were planning to go down swinging.

A couple of Stiller’s ‘90s compatriots were also considered for the role of Mary’s admirer, Ted. One of them was future frequent collaborator Owen Wilson. Another was Jon Stewart, who was an actor at the time in addition to starting his run as the host of The Daily Show.

Bill Murray, who had co-starred in the Farrelly brothers' film Kingpin, was brought up as an option for the role of Healy. However, Peter and Bobby thought he was too old. Vince Vaughn and Cuba Gooding Jr. were also in the running, but Matt Dillon got the role.

Brett Favre has a famous cameo as himself in There’s Something About Mary. The Farrellys aren’t cheeseheads, though. They are New Englanders at heart with an affinity for Boston sports teams. Naturally, they wanted New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe for the movie, but Bledsoe was injured at the time. They also approached Steve Young, but Young turned it down because of the content. Thus, Favre for the role.

The Farrellys wanted Chris Farley for the role of Warren, Mary’s brother. Unfortunately, Farley had to turn the movie down because his health was quickly deteriorating. He would die of complications due to drug abuse in the middle of the production of this movie.

Harland Williams should stay off the road in Farrelly movies. In Dumb & Dumber, he plays the police officer who drinks from the wrong beer bottle. He returns in There’s Something About Mary as a hitchhiker.

When Ted is being carried on a stretcher, it wasn’t supposed to be dropped. That was an accident. It was also very funny to the Farrellys. They cut after it happened to make sure Stiller was OK. Once they knew he was, they decided to keep it in the film.

A film critic apparently called Lee Evans’ accent in the movie the worst fake British accent ever in a film. This is notable because Evans is actually British. However, he was not using his real accent in the film, so he was in fact doing a fake English accent. Apparently, he wasn’t very good at it.

The Farrellys used a lot of their friends as extras in the film, but they extended that hospitality to others. Diaz’s father was on set one day, and the Farrelly brothers decided to stick him in the film as well. He plays one of the inmates when Stiller is being released from prison.

The Farrellys love cult musician Jonathan Richman, and they took their love to a whole new level in this movie. Richman serves as the narrator and provided music to the film as well. That includes writing the title song for the movie.

Elliott had access to a trailer, but he had to share it with another actor. Namely, he shared it with Slammer, the dog that played Puffy. Hey, at least a dog doesn’t take up much space. And won’t drink your coffee.

Obviously they couldn't ask Slammer the dog to do everything they needed Puffy to do in the film. In fact, There’s Something About Mary went through six Puffy dolls in the course of making the movie.

In spite of that fact that Brett Favre’s last name is spelled like that, it’s pronounced “Farve.” Most sports fans know that. So did Ben Stiller. There had been a rumor that Stiller had said the name wrong unintentionally, and it was kept in the film. In reality, the Farrellys scripted that line because they thought it was funny.

Tambor gets prominent billing in the film, even though he’s basically in only two scenes. That’s because much of Sully’s story was cut from the movie. If you buy the DVD with the Extended Cut, you can see all the Sully stuff that was removed from the final cut.

You won’t see Diaz in her second role in the film, but she did indeed pull double duty. While on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Diaz said that she played the part of the body inside the hitchhiker’s bag.

Stiller, Diaz, and Elliott play three people who were in the same year of high school. However, the three of them wouldn’t have been in high school at the same time. Diaz is seven years younger than Stiller, who is five years younger than Elliott.

Apparently, Diaz had a knack for golfing, or at least looking like she could golf. Peter Farrelly says that Diaz had a better swing than the golfer hired to stand in for her. Meanwhile, Matt Dillon’s father had worked as a golf coach, but the Farrellys said that Dillon wasn’t much of a golfer himself.

There’s Something About Mary was able to bring in a ton of cash for a raunchy, R-rated comedy. Off of a $23 million budget, it made a whopping $369.9 million worldwide. That made it the fourth-highest-grossing movie of 1998.

Both Siskel and Ebert were fans of the film. In fact, Siskel called There’s Something About Mary his ninth-best film of 1998 in what would be his last yearend top-10 list before his passing. In 2000, AFI would list the film as 27th on its list of the 100 best comedies movies of all time as well.