True fans can fully immerse themselves in the film.
Arlene Gould, executive director of the Natchitoches Convention and Tourism Bureau, told The Shreveport Times the movie “had a tremendous impact on the tourism trade and on our community.” Official tours are still on offer today and diehards can even stay at M’Lynn’s house. The 19th century Cook-Taylor House served as the backdrop for her residence and in 2003 it opened as a bed and breakfast called The Steel Magnolia House.
22. The writer made a cameo.
On set for both the wedding scene and the funeral, Ross suggested he play the minister. He agreed, provided he wouldn’t have to say much. “People have said, ‘Well, you’re an idiot, you just have one line, what’s the matter with you?’” he told Huffington Post. “But that’s not what it was for. The movie had very little to do with me.”
Daryl Hannah, Steel Magnolias
Moviestore Collection/Shutterstock
23. Even the small details were true to life.
Ross hired Susan’s actual doctors to play the same spot in the movie. The nurse who turned off her life support machine, did so on camera as well. Having grown close with Roberts during the shoot, Harling’s mom chose to be present on set for the scene.
“I said, ‘I can’t believe you put yourself through that,’” he recalled of the shoot. “She said, ‘No, I wanted to see Julia get up and walk away.’”
24. Shirley takes umbrage with people labeling it a chick flick.
“To say it’s a women’s film I don’t think that’s correct,” she told Entertainment Tonight in 2014. “If you’ve got women in your life bring them to see this film and you’ll know much more about them when you go home.”
25. Filming was akin to sleepaway camp.
With little to do in the small town, he shared, they’d often gather at night to play Pictionary and Charades. “Everyone got along great. It was just like Camp Magnolia,” he insisted to The Morning Call. “Olympia would call up and say ‘Come over, I have some leftover squash soup.’ Or Tom Skerritt would whip up some hot fudge sauce. Or we’d hang out on Shirley’s porch, which overlooked a lake. We always had a ball together.”
Dylan McDermott, Julia Roberts, Steel Magnolias
Tri-Star/Kobal/Shutterstock
26. Their evening chats provided the inspiration for Soapdish.
Harling told Huffington Post he wrote the screenplay for the 1991 comedy starring Field as an aging (and vicious) soap actress after the crew spent a night discussing their dream roles. While MacLaine wanted to play an alcoholic and newcomer Roberts just wanted to work, Field, he said, lamented that she was always cast as “really noble, earnest women that wear crummy clothes. For once I’d like to play a bitch that gets to wear nice clothes.” Enter: Soapdish’s Celeste Talbert.
27. Julia came away with more than an Oscar nod.
Dating Liam Neeson when she began filming, the twentysomething fell hard for her onscreen husband Dylan McDermott. The pair became engaged before splitting up a year after the movie’s release.
Steel Magnolias, Shirley Maclaine, Olympia Dukakis, Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Daryl Hannah, Dolly Parton, Steel Magnolias
Moviestore Collection/Shutterstock
28. And Susan’s son earned some impressive clout.
During a 2014 appearance on Today, Harling recalled a time his nephew was having trouble in school. Checking in to make sure he was okay, he was floored by the teen’s response. “Oh no. Don’t worry about me,” Harling recounted of what he was told. “Everybody likes me. They think I’m really cool.”
Apparently having Julia Roberts act the part of your mom comes with infinite cool points. “That hit me like a ton of bricks,” Harling said. “He doesn’t remember his mother, but he does know as a teenager that his mother was so cool, it took the biggest star in the world to play her.”
29. Shirley forecasted the film’s success.
As she had said about Roberts, the veteran star knew there was something special with the film. Dressed up in parkas and sweaters to recreate the Christmas festival, Harling told Today, “I remember Shirley turning to me during one of those scenes and saying ‘ya know, I think this could be important.’ And, you know, Shirley’s never wrong.”
30. The cast remain pals to this day.
Perhaps it was the emotional nature of the storyline or the fact that everyone stays tight with their camp friends, but as MacLaine recalls they all became protective of one another and quite close. “We really did make fast friends, all of us,” she told Garden and Gun, “and have been ever since. I don’t know what it is about the subject matter in the movie, but going through that makes you friends for life.”
