60 Fun Facts About Cruella

Who plays Estella, the aspiring designer who becomes Cruella, in the 2021 film?

She was cast back in January 2016 and also served as an executive producer.

Who plays the Baroness, the haute couture designer Estella goes to work for?

The other three were all considered; she joined in May 2019, described as pivotal to Cruella's transformation.

In what year was Cruella released?

It had been scheduled for December 2020 before the pandemic pushed it to May 28, 2021.

Who directed Cruella?

He had just made I, Tonya, and critics saw the same sympathetic-antihero storytelling here.

The main action of the film is set in London during which movement?

Estella's crew is 20-something in 1977, a decade after her mother's death.

What is the full title of the fashion-house head who becomes Estella's boss and rival?

Her Suffolk mansion, Hellman Hall, is where Estella's mother falls to her death.

Which London department store gives Estella a job, though only as a janitor?

Her drunken redecoration of the window display is what catches the Baroness's eye.

Who plays Jasper?

He deliberately did not rewatch the animated film or the 1996 remake, copying only the character's physical mannerisms.

Who plays Horace?

He had just played the title role in Richard Jewell for Clint Eastwood.

The actor playing Horace drew inspiration from which earlier performance?

Smee, Captain Hook's put-upon bosun, is another henchman with a soft centre.

Who plays Anita Darling, Estella's childhood friend turned gossip columnist?

Anita is the one who makes Cruella famous in print, and ends up with a puppy called Perdita.

Who plays John, the Baroness's valet?

He is the man who could not bring himself to kill a baby, and who pulls the necklace from the fire.

What does Estella secretly disguise as beads on the dress she designs for the Baroness?

By the night of the show the whole collection has been eaten, and the Baroness realises Estella and Cruella are the same woman.

Where does Estella stage her own rock-music fashion show?

It is immediately after this triumph that the Baroness's men capture her and frame Jasper and Horace.

What tips Estella off, at the Black and White Ball, that the Baroness killed her mother?

Estella already knew the dogs pushed her mother off the balcony; the whistle tells her who sent them.

What does the necklace turn out to unlock?

The papers prove who Estella really is, and why a maid ended up raising her.

What is the film's big twist about the Baroness?

She had ordered the newborn killed rather than let motherhood interrupt her career.

How does Estella survive being pushed off the cliff at the charity gala?

Being legally dead lets her inherit her own estate as Cruella.

Cruella takes the surname "de Vil" from what?

The original novel's name is a pun on cruel and devil, and Dodie Smith owned a Rolls-Royce Sedanca de Ville.

What does Cruella rename the Baroness's mansion once she inherits it?

That is the name of her country house in the 1956 novel and the 1961 cartoon too.

What are the two Dalmatian puppies Cruella sends to Anita and Roger called?

Roger promptly sits at his piano and starts writing a song about Cruella, setting up the 101 Dalmatians story.

What is Roger Dearly's job in the film before he turns to music?

She fires him for failing to stop Cruella, which turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to him.

Who plays Roger Dearly?

He is best known as Nandor in What We Do in the Shadows; Dev Patel had been considered for the part.

Artie, the vintage-shop owner in Cruella's entourage, was modelled on which two glam-rock figures?

He was the first original character in a live-action Disney film to be openly gay.

Who composed the film's score?

His score album and a separate song soundtrack were both released by Walt Disney Records a week before the film.

Which act performs "Call Me Cruella", the original song over the end credits?

The track appears on both the score album and the song soundtrack.

What was Cruella's production budget?

Filming ran in England from August to November 2019.

Roughly how much did Cruella gross worldwide?

Its simultaneous Disney+ Premier Access release was blamed for eating into the theatrical take.

Which Academy Award did Cruella win?

It was nominated for Makeup and Hairstyling as well but lost that one.

Who designed the film's costumes?

She had already won two Oscars, for A Room with a View and Mad Max: Fury Road, and this made three.

On its release day the film was also available on Disney+ through which paid feature?

About 686,000 US households paid to stream it that first weekend, according to Samba TV.

Cruella was only the second live-action Disney remake or spin-off to be rated PG-13. Which was the first?

The rating cited "some violence and thematic elements".

Where was the film's premiere, the first major red-carpet event since the pandemic began?

It took place on May 18, 2021, ten days before release.

Which actress, who played the villain in the 1990s films, was an executive producer on Cruella?

The costume designer said her brief was to make Stone look like a younger 1970s version of that 1990s Cruella.

Which Broadway director was originally attached to direct before leaving over scheduling in 2018?

He had been hired in November 2016; his replacement was announced that December.

Which actress was reportedly the top choice for the Baroness before the role was cast?

Charlize Theron, Julianne Moore and Demi Moore were also in the frame.

Unlike her earlier incarnations, Cruella never lights a cigarette in the film. Why?

The 1961 cartoon and the 1996 film both leaned on the cigarette holder as part of her look.

What is the title of the 2021 prequel novel about sixteen-year-old Estella?

Maureen Johnson's book is set in 1967 and pairs Estella with two wealthy siblings, the Moresby-Plums.

Cruella opened second at the US box office behind which film?

It made $26.5 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend.

In what year does the film open, with Estella as a schoolgirl?

She is expelled, moves toward London with her mother, and is orphaned at Hellman Hall the same year.

Stone and Thompson said they wanted a follow-up in the style of which film, half sequel and half prequel?

Disney confirmed a sequel in June 2021 and Stone signed to return that August.

Which two writers are credited with the final screenplay?

McNamara had co-written The Favourite, which also starred Emma Stone as a scheming climber.

Which author created Cruella de Vil?

She owned a Dalmatian named Pongo herself.

In what year was the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians published?

Disney's animated film followed five years later.

Who voiced Cruella in Disney's 1961 animated One Hundred and One Dalmatians?

Her animator said the vocal performance was his greatest inspiration for the character.

Which Disney legend animated the 1961 Cruella almost single-handedly?

She is one of the few Disney characters handled entirely by one animator.

Disney based the animated Cruella's personality and mannerisms on which actress?

Her long, lanky body came from a different woman, the character actress Mary Wickes, who posed as the live-action model.

Where does the animated Cruella rank on AFI's list of the 100 greatest movie villains?

Forbes also once ranked her the thirteenth-wealthiest fictional character.

In the original novel, why was the young Cruella expelled from school?

She already had one black plait and one white plait as a girl.

In the novel, what is the occupation of Cruella's meek husband?

Everyone assumes she married him for the trade; she also made him take her surname.

Mr. Dearly describes Cruella's chauffeur-driven car in the novel as what?

It is a black-and-white striped Daimler with what she claims is the loudest horn in London.

The name "de Vil" echoes "Count De Ville", an alias used by the title character of which 1897 novel?

The name is also a plain pun on cruel and devil, underlined by her house being called Hell Hall.

In 102 Dalmatians, who is Cruella's French accomplice?

He ends up sewn into one of his own coats while Cruella is baked into a giant cake.

Who played Cruella in the TV series Once Upon a Time?

That version can control animals and was blasted off a cliff by Emma Swan.

In the Disney Channel movie Descendants, what is the name of Cruella's teenage son?

She makes him sleep beside the bear traps guarding her fur coats.

In French-language versions, her surname becomes what?

It means "Cruella of Hell"; the Italian version is Crudelia De Mon, a pun on cruel and demon.

In the novel, all of Cruella's food is strangely coloured and tastes strongly of what?

She also keeps a roaring fire going and complains of the cold, and her flat is decorated like a luxurious Hell.

Who voices the elderly Cruella in the animated series 101 Dalmatian Street?

That series is set sixty years after the 1961 film, with her great-nephew Hunter doing the dirty work.

Between which months of 2019 was Cruella's principal photography shot in England?

Disney let slip at the D23 Expo that filming had already begun; Mark Strong and Kirby Howell-Baptiste joined the cast that September.

Who is credited with the original screenplay for Cruella that Kelly Marcel later revised?

The final script came from Fox and McNamara, with a story credit shared by McKenna, Marcel and Steve Zissis.