'Bring It On' celebrates its 20th anniversary

In the 2000 film “Bring It On,” Kirsten Dunst and Gabrielle Union played rival cheerleaders from two different schools. Writer Jessica Bendiger and director Peyton Reed tell Yahoo Entertainment about the making of the classic cheerleading movie. Reed says the original name of the film was “Cheer Fever.” They kept the name all through production until the studio decided to market the movie as “Bring It On.” “People liked it because there’s just a confrontational nature to that title,” Reed explains. When it came to casting, Union was attached to the movie right from the start, but Bendiger reveals she saw a few actresses before choosing Dunst’s for the role of Torrance. “Amy Smart read the Torrance part,” Bendiger says. “Leslie Bibb came in and read and she was such a pro.” For the part of Cliff, played by Jesse Bradford, Bendiger and Reed say they looked at James Franco and Jason Schwartzman. Check out the video above for more on the film and it’s message about cultural appropriation.