Forty years ago, Kathleen Turner fainted at her high school reunion and woke up in 1960. Peggy Sue Got Married opened in theaters on October 10, 1986, and gave a generation the chance to ask what they would do over.
The Francis Ford Coppola comedy earned Turner her only Oscar nomination. The road to Peggy Sue Got Married was nearly as twisty as the trip its heroine takes.
‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ Almost Looked Very Different
Turner was not the first Peggy Sue. The project began with Debra Winger in the lead and Jonathan Demme directing. Demme left over creative differences. Penny Marshall stepped in and then departed as well, and Winger followed her out.
Coppola took over and cast Turner, who was already a star thanks to Romancing the Stone. For her husband, Charlie, he wanted his nephew Nicolas Cage.
Cage needed convincing. “I must have said no five or six times,” he later recalled, according to Yahoo Entertainment. He agreed only when his uncle let him play the part in a big way.
That meant false teeth and a high, nasal voice. Cage has said he based the sound on Pokey, the clay horse from The Gumby Show.
A Cast Full Of Future Stars
Look closely at the reunion crowd and the 1960 classrooms. Jim Carrey plays one of Charlie’s buddies. Helen Hunt appears as Peggy Sue’s daughter. Joan Allen and Catherine Hicks are her best friends.
The title comes from the Buddy Holly song, which plays over the opening credits.
Audiences embraced it. The film cost $18 million and earned $41.5 million at the box office. It received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Turner.
Turner is 72 now and has been open about her health challenges. She still turns up on the occasional red carpet. Cage is 62 and an Oscar winner.
The movie’s question has only grown sweeter with time. Peggy Sue gets to see her mother young again and visit the grandparents she lost. Forty years on, the moment she hears her grandmother’s voice on the telephone still brings tears.
