45 Fun Facts About Little Miss Sunshine

In which city do the Hoovers live at the start of Little Miss Sunshine?

Albuquerque, New Mexico. With the pageant only days away and no money for plane tickets, all six of them set off west from there by road.

Where is the Little Miss Sunshine pageant being held?

Redondo Beach, California. Olive had only been runner-up in her regional heat, and she gets her place there because the girl who beat her has to give up the crown.

How is Frank related to Sheryl Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine?

He is her brother. Frank comes out of hospital into Sheryl's care after a suicide attempt, and because he cannot be left on his own he has to join the trip.

After its clutch fails, how do the Hoovers get their bus moving in Little Miss Sunshine?

Push it and jump in. A mechanic tells them the old bus will start in third gear once it is rolling, so everyone shoves, runs alongside and leaps through the side door.

What is Richard Hoover's line of work in Little Miss Sunshine?

Motivational speaker. Richard preaches a nine-step programme for turning losers into winners, while the deal that was meant to launch it falls apart during the trip.

Which philosopher does the silent teenager Dwayne admire?

Nietzsche. Dwayne has sworn not to say a word until he gets into the Air Force Academy, so he answers his family by scribbling on a small white notepad.

What discovery finally makes Dwayne break his vow of silence?

He is colour blind. He cannot read a test card Olive holds up in the bus, learns that it rules out flying jets, and has to be coaxed back from the roadside by a hug from his sister.

Uncle Frank is a scholar of which French writer?

Proust. Frank calls himself America's leading expert on the novelist, and he came apart when his nearest rival in the field was handed a MacArthur 'genius' grant.

Why was Grandpa Edwin evicted from his retirement home?

For snorting heroin. Grandpa is unrepentant: he warns his grandson that the young would be crazy to touch the stuff, then adds that at his age you would be crazy not to.

In Little Miss Sunshine, how do the Hoovers get Grandpa's body out of the hospital?

Through the room window into the van. The paperwork for moving a body to another state would cost them the pageant, so they pass Grandpa out to the car park and drive on.

To which song does Olive perform her pageant routine?

'Super Freak' by Rick James. Grandpa coached the routine in secret, so her parents learn only on the night that it is a striptease, and they end up dancing beside her to stop her being hauled off.

Which dinner, served yet again, sets off Grandpa's rant at the Hoover table in Little Miss Sunshine?

Fried chicken. Sheryl brings it home by the bucket and serves it on paper plates, and Grandpa explodes that every single day it is the chicken.

Who plays Olive Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine?

Abigail Breslin. The directors were won over by her intense focus on an audition tape, and because she was a slight child she wore a padded suit to give Olive her tummy.

Olive's 10-year-old actress lost the Best Supporting Actress Oscar to which Dreamgirls star?

Jennifer Hudson. She had finished only seventh on American Idol three years before, and she won the Oscar with the first film role she ever played.

How was Olive's young actress shielded from Grandpa's foul-mouthed lines on set?

She wore headphones, like her character. Olive listens to music while Grandpa curses in the bus, so the real sound stayed off, and the actress heard his lines only when she saw the finished film.

Which actor won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing Grandpa Edwin in Little Miss Sunshine?

Alan Arkin. His first nomination had come forty years earlier for The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, and he won at last for a character who dies before the family reaches the pageant.

Which Daily Show alumnus was cast as Uncle Frank despite producers doubting his star power?

Steve Carell. Nobody really knew who he was when he was cast, one producer admitted, but by the time the film reached cinemas The 40-Year-Old Virgin had made him a star.

Which actor plays the silent Dwayne, and took his own vow of silence for a few days to prepare?

Paul Dano. He called his own silence 'really, really tough', hardest of all around his family, and said it showed him just how frustrated Dwayne must be.

Which Australian actress plays Sheryl Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine?

Toni Collette. The directors went to her because she could be funny and truthful at once, and she plays Sheryl as the family's one rock, holding a second marriage and a houseful of misfits together.

Which future Breaking Bad star plays Stan Grossman, the businessman who lets Richard down?

Bryan Cranston. Stan is the business contact Richard has pinned his hopes on, and in his one scene he breaks the news that their deal is dead.

How long did it take Michael Arndt to write the first rough draft of the script?

Three days. He began on 23 May 2000 and had a rough first draft by the 26th; getting it filmed and into cinemas then took him another six years.

Which two blockbusters did Little Miss Sunshine writer Michael Arndt go on to script?

Toy Story 3 and The Force Awakens. He wrote the first draft of the Star Wars sequel alone, but in 2013 its director, J. J. Abrams, and Lawrence Kasdan took the script over and rewrote it.

Who ended up covering Little Miss Sunshine's entire budget?

One of its producers. Marc Turtletaub covered the budget out of his own pocket after the studio walked away, and the finished film was then sold to a distributor for more than he had spent.

Which studio dropped Little Miss Sunshine in development, only to join the bidding for the finished film?

Focus Features. Having let the script go, the company joined the all-night bidding once the finished film had become a festival sensation, and still came away empty-handed.

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris made their name with what kind of work before directing Little Miss Sunshine?

Music videos. They directed the Smashing Pumpkins' 'Tonight, Tonight', and the actor cast as the family's teenage son said those clips were what made him want the job.

Little Miss Sunshine's two directors, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, are also what?

Husband and wife. Asked how a marriage survives a first feature film, Dayton said the two of them tried not to think about being together 23 hours a day.

Little Miss Sunshine's $10.5 million sale in January 2006 set a record at which film festival?

Sundance. After a rapturous first screening, rival buyers haggled through the night, and Fox Searchlight closed the deal early the next morning.

Before Little Miss Sunshine, Olive's young actress played Mel Gibson's daughter in which thriller?

Signs. She plays the little girl who leaves half-finished glasses of water all over the farmhouse, and those glasses turn out to be what saves the family from the invaders.

Little Miss Sunshine won Oscars for acting and what else?

Screenplay. The Best Original Screenplay award went to Michael Arndt, a first-time screenwriter who only months before writing it had quit his job as Matthew Broderick's personal assistant.

Which Denver band wrote the score of Little Miss Sunshine with composer Mychael Danna?

DeVotchKa. The directors heard the then-unsigned quartet by chance on a Los Angeles radio show one Saturday morning, and built the film's sound around its theremin and sousaphone.

Which singer-songwriter has two songs, 'No Man's Land' and 'Chicago', on the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack?

Sufjan Stevens. 'Chicago' comes from Illinois, the second in his promised series of fifty albums, one for every American state, a plan he later admitted was a joke.

In Little Miss Sunshine, what does Grandpa tell Olive a real loser is?

Someone too afraid to try. Olive has sobbed that her father hates losers, and Grandpa tells her that because she is trying she cannot be one; it is their last talk before he dies in the night.

Who played Olive's rivals in Little Miss Sunshine's final contest?

Veterans of real beauty pageants. The directors hardly dressed or directed them at all: the girls looked just as they did on the circuit and performed the same acts they used in real contests.

Why were two Little Miss Sunshine producers left off its Best Picture nomination?

A cap on names. The Academy let only three producers share a nomination, so Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa missed out, though the Producers Guild had honoured all five; months later the Academy began allowing rare exceptions.

Why does a patrolman pull the Hoovers' bus over while Grandpa's body is hidden in the back?

Its horn will not stop honking. The officer never finds the body: he comes across Grandpa's dirty magazines first, is delighted, and waves the family on its way.

Greg Kinnear, who plays Richard Hoover, earned an Oscar nomination for which 1997 comedy-drama?

As Good as It Gets. He was Jack Nicholson's gay artist neighbour, and a producer here said he was cast as Richard because nobody is better at making an unlikable man likeable.

A stage musical of Little Miss Sunshine premiered in 2011 with music and lyrics by which composer?

William Finn. After the 2011 try-out in San Diego he and James Lapine gave the show a major overhaul, and a heavily revised version reached Off-Broadway two years later.

In Little Miss Sunshine, whom does Frank run into while buying magazines at a gas station?

The student who jilted him. To make it worse, Frank is clutching the dirty magazines he has just been sent in to buy for Grandpa.

Where does Richard Hoover go in Little Miss Sunshine to confront Stan Grossman face to face?

Scottsdale. Stan happens to be in town as the family crosses Arizona, so Richard insists on seeing him in person, and comes away with his book deal dead.

In Little Miss Sunshine, Stan Grossman shares his name with a character in which earlier film?

Fargo. The Coen brothers' film has a Stan Grossman of its own, the money man who helps freeze a desperate son-in-law out of his own deal, and the shared name is said to be Arndt's nod to it.

Which film beat Little Miss Sunshine to the Best Picture Oscar for 2006?

The Departed. Little Miss Sunshine had taken the Producers Guild's top film prize a month earlier, but on Oscar night Martin Scorsese's gangster story won instead.

The actress who plays Sheryl Hoover was Oscar-nominated as the mother in which 1999 ghost story?

The Sixth Sense. There she was the worn-out mother of a boy who sees dead people; in Little Miss Sunshine her teenage son gives her a different problem and refuses to speak at all.

Little Miss Sunshine won Best Feature in 2007 at which awards for independent film?

The Independent Spirit Awards. It took four prizes there the day before the Oscars, among them Best Director for the pair the Academy had not even nominated.

The actor who plays Dwayne went on to co-star in which 2007 Best Picture nominee?

There Will Be Blood. He was cast in a small part opposite Daniel Day-Lewis, then took over a leading one when another actor was replaced during filming, and ended up playing twin brothers.

Mychael Danna, co-composer of Little Miss Sunshine's score, later won an Oscar for which 2012 film?

Life of Pi. Danna made his name folding non-Western instruments into the orchestra, which suited Ang Lee's tale of an Indian boy adrift with a tiger, and it won him a Golden Globe too.