Zoolander's Iconic Gasoline Fight Scene Almost Featured a Sum 41 Song
If you were a young person in the early 2000s, you might have known Sum 41 from watching MTV's TRL. But it was arguably the American Pie series that put the pop-punk band in the cultural lexicon forever. The scenes with Sum 41 music had a lasting impact on people of a certain generation-but apparently not on the band's lead singer, Deryck Whibley.
"I completely forget that there was music in American Pie until someone brings it up," he says in an interview with Men's Health. "I saw it when it came out. I saw it because we knew we were in it, so we went to the theater to go see it, and that was the last time I’ve ever seen it."
Remember the scene in American Pie 2 where "In Too Deep" plays? It's where all of the main characters have an (admittedly lengthy) cheers salute to one another during a party at their lake house. Whibley is not a fan.
"I remember thinking oh, god. That’s the worst song for that moment! That was the worst they could’ve picked," he says. "And that was our own song!"
Sum 41's most popular songs-"Fat Lip" "In Too Deep," and "The Hell Song"-appear across American Pie 2 and American Wedding. But there's another iconic comedy they almost had their music in-but then didn't.
"We were actually supposed to be in the first Zoolander-we turned it down," Whibley says. As he explains, someone involved with the 2001 Ben Stiller classic wanted the band to record a song for the movie, and invited them all to a private screening. In the screening, it was just the band members, along with the person who invited them, and they saw the scene: Derek Zoolander and his male model friends driving in a car and having a gasoline fight.
"Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" by Wham! was playing in the scene at the time, but they were ensured it was just a placeholder. The studio wanted them to record a punk-rock cover of the song to use in its place.
"We told the guy after, it’s perfect. You’ll ruin it by us doing a punk version of that. It’s perfect for that," he said with a slight laugh. "So, we turned it down, they left it, and it was perfect."
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