A wave of nostalgia! The beloved surfer girl flick Blue Crush hit theaters on August 16, 2002, marking Kate Bosworth’s first major role.
“It was so intense and overwhelming,” the actress and model said of her sudden rise to fame during a June 2021 appearance on the “Ladies First With Laura Brown” podcast.
“It was a really, really hard time, and I did not know how to handle that at all. And I also did not know how to really communicate through that very well to support systems or to my friends or family,” Bosworth continued, revealing that she lost “a lot of weight” at the time due to being under “a lot of scrutiny.”
Despite the difficult period after the film first premiered, the California native thinks a Blue Crush sequel is a great idea. “Sanoe [Lake], Michelle [Rodriguez] and I always talk about it. We would love to make it happen,” she told Entertainment Tonight in May 2022.
“There are still a few waves that the world is still unwelcoming to women surfing them. I think it would be great to see another location in the world and bringing the girls to a wave that otherwise is male dominated,” the I-Land star added.
The sports movie, based on Susan Orlean’s 1998 Outside magazine article “Life’s Swell,” follows three friends out to prove that there’s a place for women in the world of competitive surfing. Shot in Oahu, Hawaii, the film featured cameos from real life pro surfers including Megan Abubo, Rochelle Ballard, Layne Benchley, Keala Kennelly and Kate Skarratt.
The director, John Stockwell, told IGN in August 2002 that he “originally aspired to cast only surfers.” Although Bosworth was an actress rather than an athlete, she didn’t disappoint.
“She was crazy. Fearless. She’s insane,” Stockwell told the outlet of the Blue Crush star. “She went out on days where a guy would get paralyzed at the Pipeline, then she’d paddle out five minutes later. She wasn’t a diva. I don’t know what it is. She never really got hurt. I don’t think she ever quite realized the danger she got herself into.”
The Top Gun actor added that he wanted to make a movie about female surfers to counter the sexism he’d observed in the sport. “It’s incredibly misogynistic. Even shooting on the North Shore, members of our own crew were like, ‘Girls can’t surf pipe, girls shouldn’t be out there. Why don’t you do a guy surfer movie?’”
Scroll through to see what Bosworth and her Blue Crush costars are doing now, 20 years after their characters proved the boys wrong:
The Long Road Home alum went on to appear in films including Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! (2004), Superman Returns (2006), 21 (2008), and Still Alice (2014). In 2019, she starred in the Netflix science fiction miniseries The I-Land. Bosworth was married to director Michael Polish from 2013 to 2021 and is stepmother to Jasper, Polish’s daughter from a previous marriage. She is currently in a relationship with Justin Long. Shutterstock (2)
After playing Eden, the best friend of Bosworth’s character, in Blue Crush, Rodriguez went on to appear as Ana Lucia Cortez on Lost and star as Letty Ortiz in the Fast & Furious franchise. Her other notable film roles include Chris Sanchez in S.W.A.T. (2003), Trudy Chacon in Avatar (2009), Luz in Machete (2010) and Linda in Widows (2018). Rodriguez has spoken openly about her fluid sexuality. “I’ve gone both ways. I do as I please. I am too f---ing curious to sit here and not try when I can. Men are intriguing. So are chicks,” she told Entertainment Weekly in October 2013. Shutterstock (2)
Before she played Bosworth’s cornrow-wearing little sister, Boorem had already appeared in films including Jack Frost and Mighty Joe Young and earned critical acclaim for her performance in The Education of Little Tree. After Blue Crush, the Arizona native went on to appear in films including Sleepover (2004) and The Ward (2010). She was also a recurring guest star on Dawson’s Creek in 2003 and 2003. Shutterstock (2)
The Hawaii native was a surfer prior to joining the cast of Stockwell’s 2002 film. She has been featured in television commercial campaigns for Target, MTV, Gap and Eddie Bauer. The former face of the brand Roxy also penned the 2005 book Surfer Girl, a comprehensive guide to the sport. Lake's other film roles include Rain in Rolling (2007), Gina in The Darkness (2008) and Pamela in Half-Life (2008). She has been married to her husband, Michael Sterling Eaton, since 2007. The couple share two children: River, born in 2010, and Sage, born in 2011. Shutterstock (2)
Davis played Bosworth’s love interest, NFL quarterback Matt Tillman. Perhaps best known for his role as Warner Huntington III in Legally Blonde (2001), the Utah native went on to play Adam Hillman on the ABC comedy-drama What About Brian and Alaric Saltzman on The Vampire Diaries and its spinoff series, Legacies. He married actress Kiley Casciano in 2018. The pair have two daughters: Ripley, born in 2020, and Dorothy, born in 2022. Shutterstock (2)
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