In portraying the New York world of modeling, both Simonds and Waters wanted a fresh, uncliched approach. "We wanted the whole modeling angle to be funny," says Waters. "The only way to deal with it is tongue-in- cheek." In casting real models like Shalom Harlow, Sarah O'Hare and Tomiko Fraser, he could work from the inside. They've lived the reality of the characters in the film and knew how to have fun with it. Says Fraser, "These girls are confident in who they are. They're not drunk or anorexic or stereotypes in any way. They all have strong, distinct personalities. movie is unique."
That approach is precisely what attracted Universal's top executives Stacey Snider and Mary Parent to the project, says Waters. "They understood that it was a comedy about female empowerment."
Part of what attracted O'Hare to the role of Candi was that the script mirrored her own experience of emigrating from Australia to New York and having to live with other models while trying to break into the fashion business. "Head Over Heels is not about super-models," says O'Hare. "It shows the struggle - in a very fun way - and the bonding that goes on between the girls."
With shades of another classic comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire, the film is about the camaraderie that develops among Amanda, her best friend Lisa (played by China Chow) and the four models. The other women function as Amanda's fairy godmothers, teaching the heroine how to deal with the opposite sex. They know all about men and how to handle them. In turn, Amanda teaches them about romance in their otherwise jaded world. "Amanda teaches them to open up their hearts," says Simonds, "and they teach her how to open up her eyes.
Head Over Heels was shot in Vancouver and New York. For production designer Perry Blake, who has worked with producer Simonds on eight consecutive films including such triumphs as The Waterboy and Big Daddy, the romantic comedy was a real change of pace - and a challenge. Since many exteriors were shot in Vancouver substituting for New York, Blake arrived early to scout out suitable locations with director Waters and cinematographer Mark Plummer. They found Vancouver to be surprisingly versatile. "I knew we could do it as soon as I found a '30s Deco building downtown that had the perfect lobby for one of our action sequences," says Blake. And he was happy to discover that aspects of the city's Stanley Park provided a convincing substitute for New York's Central Park. And good fortune also smiled on the production when Blake discovered that Vancouver's aquarium actually stocked rare Beluga whales, which were crucial for the background of a key romantic scene between stars Prinze and Potter. During the final weeks of shooting, such exteriors as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the real Central Park were wrapped around the sequences already shot in Canada.
"When the movie moved to New York, the entire energy changed," says Simonds. "Vancouver was contained and controlled, but when we hit the streets of Manhattan, it became frenetic and electric, which was perfect because most of the scenes we shot there involved the characters being chased by the bad guys. Though the exteriors to the plush Upper East Side apartment Amanda shares with her four exotic roommates were shot in New York, the piece de resistance of the production was the interior of the two story apartment, which Blake constructed on a sound stage in Vancouver. "The apartment is a player in the movie," Blake explains. "I wanted something cool and hip, but with enough variety since one fourth of the movie is set there."
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