Mandy Moore is looking back fondly on the cult classic “Saved!” and the boozy behind-the-scenes mischief that came with it.
During a candid appearance on Evan Ross Katz’s Netflix show ‘Shut Up, Evan,‘ the 42-year-old actress recalled how her much older co-star, Macaulay Culkin, introduced her to the wonders of the White Russian when she was just 18 and legally underage to drink while filming in Canada.
Mandy Moore’s Nostalgic ‘Saved!’ Podcast Story
Moore, who was transitioning from pop princess to actress at the time, explained that filming the 2004 satirical comedy in British Columbia felt less like work and more like a rebellious summer camp.
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While she admitted the cast “weren’t really getting up to no good,” limiting their mischief to throwing giant marshmallows off their hotel balconies, she conceded that Culkin did tempt her with contraband cocktails. “I do remember a little bit of underage drinking,” Moore confessed with a laugh. “As it happened, I was like, ‘Look, I didn’t go to high school.’ I was 18.”
The White Russian That Changed Everything
In British Columbia, the legal drinking age is 19. However, Culkin, who was 45 at the time of the podcast recording but 22 during the film’s production, was legally able to drink. He took it upon himself to educate his younger co-stars in the art of the cocktail.
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Moore specifically credited the ‘Home Alone‘ star for introducing the cast to a drink that would change her life: the White Russian (vodka, coffee liqueur, and cream). “I was like, ‘Milk and alcohol? This is made for me, I love this! This is like ice cream, this is fantastic!‘” Moore gushed to host Evan Ross Katz.
Playing a Mean Girl Was a Huge Stretch for Mandy Moore
The revelation offers a rare, light-hearted glimpse into the set of ‘Saved!‘, a film that was anything but typical for the young actress. At the time, Moore was best known for her pop singles and wholesome roles in ‘A Walk to Remember‘ and ‘The Princess Diaries‘. Taking on the role of the vicious, Bible-throwing mean girl Hilary Faye was a deliberate and risky stretch.
“It felt so wholly different than who I am that I was like, ‘Oh this is a stretch,’” Moore said. She hoped the irreverent role would help audiences regard her “in a different light.”
Macaulay Culkin’s Serious Commitment to His Role
Moore wasn’t the only one hoping for a change. Behind-the-scenes facts about the film reveal that Culkin, who used a wheelchair in the film due to his character Roland’s “degenerated shins,” took the role exceptionally seriously. According to a 2018 BuzzFeed retrospective, Culkin had a wheelchair sent to his home two to three months before filming and shadowed a real wheelchair user to learn the nuances, such as shifting his weight every ten minutes.
While the film was a modest box office performer, it has since become a beloved cult classic, revered for its sharp satire of high school hypocrisy.
Reflecting on the marshmallow fights, the underage White Russians, and the whirlwind shoot, Moore summed up the experience warmly. “It was a crazy, crazy life-changing experience,” she said. “I felt like a cool kid. I was like, ‘Oh, I get to sit at the cool kids table with these young Hollywood kids that are making really cool choices’”.
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