Alyson Hannigan recalls being part of 'American Pie'
Jun 10, 2024
Washington [US], June 10 : Actor and TV show host Alyson Hannigan recalls being part of the 1999 film 'American Pie' and spoke about her role as Michelle Flaherty, reported Deadline.
"The best story from the whole thing was that, you know, it was a low-budget movie with all these tiers of negotiations," shared Hannigan, adding, "There was an A-tier and a B-tier. I think I was on the bottom C-tier with Seann William Scott."
She explained that the tiers were "in regards to pay," adding, "So it's just scale plus 10 percent to an agent. There's no negotiating on the C-tier because the character is not that important."
"I was like, 'Okay, fine.' It was seven days and it was more of a passion project. Then, in the contract, there was a sequel clause," Hannigan continued.
She added, "I said, 'Look, I'm getting paid scale plus 10. I'm not going to sign for a sequel. That doesn't make sense.' I sound like I was being really difficult, but I just thought it was silly. So they took that [clause] out, which ended up being really nice for me when I did the sequel. There were a couple smart things I did back then."
'American Pie' starred Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas and Eddie Kaye Thomas as a group of high school friends who make a pact to lose their virginities before graduation
Hannigan reprised her role in 'American Pie 2' (2001).
During her breakout role as Willow Rosenberg on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), Hannigan claimed she was drawn to playing Michelle because the character "surprises you at the end,"
"I was already playing, like, the perfect person on Buffy, and Michelle was the opposite," she shared.
Hannigan juggled both roles as the movie's producers "had to clear my schedule for Buffy," but she was "just glad it worked out."
"The second one I worked 11 days because I was still on Buffy," she recalled. "For the third one, I worked weekends and that was brutal because there was a day when I worked all night on American Pie and drove straight to the Buffy set. It was like a 36-hour day or something. Crazy," reported Deadline.
