Trending badgeTrendingPosted 54 minutes agoSubscribe to Screen Time NewsletterCaret DownI Genuinely Can't Watch "The Princess Diaries" The Same Way Again After Reading These 21 Facts"The Princess Diaries" was filmed on the same soundstage as "Mary Poppins." The film also marked Julie Andrews' first Disney movie since "Mary Poppins."by Nora DominickBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestLinkHot Topic🔥 Full coverage and conversation on Disney 1. First, Disney reportedly paid author Meg Cabot only $4,000 for the rights to The Princess Diaries back in 1999, with the book being published in 2000. At the time, Cabot was working at NYU as a supervisor in a girls' dorm. Debra Martin Chase and Whitney Houston, who had recently produced Cinderella together in 1997 (with Houston also starring in it), were the ones who pursued the rights to the book after the manuscript landed on their desks. Disney / Via youtube.com According to Cabot, her editor got a promotion at her job after Disney optioned The Princess Diaries. Apparently, before that, publishers had no interest in publishing more than the first book in the series. As production got rolling, Cabot told the Guardian that she was then getting checks for "low-to-mid hundreds of thousands" from Disney. 2. From the start, there were numerous changes suggested for the film adaptation. Meg Cabot recalled getting a call from Disney, saying, "We're really sorry, but in the movie we're going to kill off the father, [because] Julie Andrews wants to play the grandmother, but she doesn't have enough lines so we're going to kill the dad and give her all the dead dad's lines. Is that OK?" Cabot recalled telling them, "Julie Andrews, yeah, you can kill the dad, whatever you have to do!" Disney The setting was also moved from New York City to San Francisco because director Garry Marshall was reportedly living in California alongside his family and grandchildren at the time, and he requested that production be there so he could still spend time with them. 3. Julie Andrews was the only choice to play Queen Clarisse Renaldi, with Whitney Houston saying, "She's every little girl's dream ... She's our Cinderella. I know she belongs to England, but she's ours." Meanwhile, Garry Marshall, who was the only choice to direct the film, said, "Julie Andrews, a lady born to wear a tiara. She's very funny [too], so she knows where the jokes are and she's one of the great reactors." This was Andrews' first Disney movie since Mary Poppins. Disney "The magic she gave to us as little girls, she continues to give to other generations," Debra Martin Chase said in an interview for the DVD extras. 4. Scarlett Johansson, January Jones, and Emmy Rossum were some of the actors considered for the role of Mia Thermopolis. Juliette Lewis, Reese Witherspoon, Claire Danes, and more also reportedly turned down the role. Evan Agostini / Getty Images, Patrick McMullan / Getty Images Casting director Donna Morong recalled to Cosmopolitan that Anne was always "on [their] radar" but she wasn't immediately available to star in the movie. BuzzFeed TrendingHot TopicObsessed with all things Disney? Join our fan community where you'll find hot topic discussions, quizzes, movie news, and more!See our Disney Discussions 5. While casting the role of Mia Thermopolis, producer Debra Martin Chase said she kept saying they needed to find "the next Audrey Hepburn." Anne Hathaway only auditioned once for The Princess Diaries, with Garry Marshall and producers immediately falling in love with her. In the DVD extras for the movie, Hathaway recalled getting cast, saying, "Garry has two granddaughters, who at the time were five years old, and he showed them the audition tapes, and they decided I had the best princess hair." Disney / Via youtube.com Speaking about finding Hathaway, Marshall said, "Anne Hathaway, for me, combines two people I love very much: Judy Garland and Harpo Marx. It's a strange combo she has, but she has those eyes that can swing me away from comedy to drama." He added, "Annie was really the only young girl who could do both sides of the story of Princess Diaries."Meanwhile, Julie Andrews said Hathaway reminded her of Audrey Hepburn and Julia Roberts. 6. With The Princess Diaries being Anne Hathaway's first major movie role, producer Debra Martin Chase said Julie Andrews was always looking for ways to help teach Anne how a film set worked. Debra recalled to Cosmopolitan, "One day we filmed Julie's scenes first so she could leave, and Annie was going to do the rest of the scene with Julie's stand-in. Julie goes off, and a few minutes later she comes back in her robe and slippers with a cup of tea, and she's like, 'No, I'm going to read with Annie. I want her to learn how to do it right.'" Disney Speaking about meeting Andrews for the first time, Hathaway said, "I was meeting my idol. I was meeting someone who I'd looked up to. And she was everything I had hoped she would be and more, because in addition to being Julie A