50 Fun Facts About Liar Liar

Who directed Liar Liar?

Shadyac was once the youngest joke-writer on Bob Hope's staff before he moved into film comedy.

What is Fletcher Reede's profession?

The plot hinges on him being unable to bend the truth in court, which is a problem for a man paid to do exactly that.

What does Max wish for when he blows out his birthday candles?

The wish takes effect immediately and lasts exactly 24 hours, which is what forces the film's real-time scramble.

Which birthday is Max celebrating when he makes the wish?

The film ends a year later at his sixth birthday, where his only wish turns out to be for rollerblades.

Why does Fletcher miss his son's birthday party?

The partner, Miranda, later tries to get him fired once she realises he cannot lie.

What happens to Fletcher's car after he is pulled over by a police officer?

Unable to lie, he confesses every traffic infraction and unpaid parking ticket on the spot.

Fletcher's client Samantha Cole wants to get around what?

Fletcher eventually wins by attacking that agreement rather than by refuting the evidence against her.

What is the name of the main witness in the Cole case, the man Samantha has been cheating with?

He is eager to lie on the stand, which is exactly the problem: Fletcher discovers his curse also stops him suborning perjury.

Audrey is considering moving with Max to which city?

Her fiancé Jerry proposed after receiving a job offer there, and she accepts mainly to shield Max from more broken promises.

Miranda tries to get Fletcher fired by baiting him into insulting whom?

The plan fails because the board mistakes his brutally accurate insults for a light-hearted roast.

Where does Fletcher stage an assault on himself in an attempt to delay the case?

The gambit collapses because the only truthful grounds he can offer for a continuance are the words "I can't lie."

How does Fletcher ultimately win the Cole case truthfully?

Samantha's grousing accidentally reveals her real age, handing him the argument.

What share of Richard Cole's marital assets does the judge award Samantha?

She immediately pivots to demanding custody of the children for extra child support, which is what horrifies Fletcher.

Why does the judge hold Fletcher in contempt after the verdict?

The judge assumes he is being mocked when the winning lawyer suddenly begs to lose.

Who bails Fletcher out of jail?

She had quit on him earlier in the day; his honesty in court convinces her he has turned over a new leaf.

What does Fletcher commandeer at the airport to chase the departing plane?

He keeps his promise to say goodbye to Max through a plane window and stops the aircraft, but ends up on a stretcher.

At the end of the film, what does Max say he wished for on his sixth birthday?

The lights come back on to reveal his parents kissing, but that was not the wish.

Jim Carrey makes a cameo at the end of the film as which of his In Living Color characters?

The character turns up to see to Reede's injuries after the stairway crash.

Which actress made her film debut in Liar Liar as one of Max's classmates?

She later starred in Aquamarine and the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left.

The film is dedicated to the memory of which cast member, who died shortly after filming?

He played the judge, and suffered a fatal heart attack while driving in Burbank in October 1996.

The role of Fletcher Reede was originally envisioned for which two actors?

The script bounced around numerous studios before Imagine Entertainment picked it up.

Which British actor was interested in the lead role but backed out because of a personal scandal?

The scandal was his 1995 arrest with Divine Brown on Sunset Boulevard.

To make Liar Liar, Carrey turned down which role in another 1997 comedy?

Mike Myers ended up playing the villain opposite himself, and the choice of Liar Liar paid off with a Golden Globe nomination.

Which production company finally picked up the script after numerous studios rejected it?

The company was co-founded by producer Brian Grazer and director Ron Howard.

Where did Liar Liar hold its premiere on March 18, 1997?

The venue sat on the Universal Studios lot and hosted concerts and awards shows until it was demolished in 2013.

Roughly how much did Liar Liar gross worldwide?

It was made for about $45 million; roughly $181 million of the take came from North America alone.

Liar Liar was Universal's second-biggest three-day opener at the time, behind which film?

It took $31.4 million in 2,845 theaters that weekend.

Liar Liar set a record for the largest March opening weekend, taking it from which film?

The March record stood for five years until Ice Age took it in 2002.

Which animated film finally broke Liar Liar's March opening-weekend record in 2002?

The record had held for five years.

Liar Liar opened at number one, beating the special-edition re-release of which Star Wars film?

The biopic Selena opened the same weekend and also finished behind it.

After three weeks at number one, Liar Liar was knocked off the top of the box office by which film?

By late April 1997 Liar Liar had passed the Star Wars re-release to become the year's top grosser to date.

Liar Liar held the record for the widest release of a Jim Carrey film until which movie in June 2000?

That later film reunited Carrey with the Farrelly brothers, who had directed him in Dumb and Dumber.

Some critics compared Liar Liar's plot to an episode of which anthology TV series, in which a haunted car forces a salesman to tell the truth?

The episode, "The Whole Truth," even has a scene where an assistant asks for a raise and is told bluntly there is none.

Roger Ebert gave Liar Liar three stars out of four and confessed that Carrey was doing what?

Ebert had panned both Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.

What grade did audiences polled by CinemaScore give Liar Liar?

Rotten Tomatoes' consensus credited Carrey's physical humor with turning a thin plot into a laugh riot.

For Liar Liar, Jim Carrey received a nomination at the 55th edition of which awards?

It was his second nomination there for Best Actor after The Mask; he won the following year for The Truman Show.

Liar Liar was the middle of three Carrey collaborations with its director. Which film came first?

The third, Bruce Almighty, arrived in 2003 with Morgan Freeman as God.

Which actress, later ER's Abby Lockhart, plays Fletcher's ex-wife Audrey?

At the time she was still starring on the sitcom NewsRadio, and squeezed in Primal Fear and Primary Colors around it.

Who plays Samantha Cole, the gold-digging client?

The year before, she had played Violet in the Wachowskis' Bound; the year after, she became Tiffany in Bride of Chucky.

Which star of The Princess Bride plays Audrey's new boyfriend Jerry, cast by "pure chance"?

He had worked with the director before, and Jerry is the one who ends up encouraging Audrey to stay in California.

Amanda Donohoe, who plays senior partner Miranda, won a Golden Globe as lawyer C.J. Lamb on which TV drama?

On that show she took part in one of the first so-called lesbian kiss episodes on American television, in 1991.

Anne Haney, Fletcher's secretary Greta, also played court supervisor Mrs. Sellner in which 1993 film?

She once said she came to Hollywood because "my husband died, my daughter went to college, the dog got fleas, and the maid quit."

Judge Marshall Stevens' actor was best known as Caleb Taylor in which 1983 sci-fi miniseries?

He also spent a season on Night Court as Judge Willard, the arrogant rival of Judge Harry Stone.

Who composed the score for Liar Liar?

The composer went on to score Bruce Almighty, Elf and The Passion of the Christ, the last earning him an Oscar nomination.

Which company released a remastered 25th anniversary Blu-ray of Liar Liar in January 2022?

The first DVD, back in January 1998, was full-screen only.

Which writing duo penned the Liar Liar screenplay?

The pair's script was rejected by numerous studios before Imagine Entertainment picked it up.

Roughly what was Liar Liar's production budget?

It went on to gross about $303 million worldwide.

Which 2003 film was the third and final Carrey-Shadyac collaboration after Liar Liar?

The first was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective in 1994.

Liar Liar's opening was the second-biggest ever for Imagine Entertainment, behind which 1996 film?

Its $31.4 million debut in 2,845 theaters was also Universal's second-best three-day opener after Jurassic Park.

Over what months in 1996 was Liar Liar filmed in Los Angeles?

Carrey called the shoot physically exhausting: 'this constant suppression of angst, completely freaking out all the time.'