Hacky sack in the quad? She’s All That’s 1999 release embodied all things ‘90s, from campus DJs and poetry slams to choreographed prom dances and girl next door romances.
More than two decades after it hit theaters, fans are still rooting for Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) and Zack Siler (Freddie Prinze Jr.), many wondering if their romance lasted after high school graduation.
Despite getting off to a rocky start — Zack bet fellow jock Dean Sampson (the late Paul Walker) that he could turn any girl into prom queen in six weeks — the pair’s chemistry was undeniable. Laney allowed Zack to own his softer side, while he brought her out of her secluded artist shell.
The film, which also starred up and coming actors Gabrielle Union, Dulé Hill, Anna Paquin and Kieran Culkin, has become a rom-com staple.
17 years after winning over viewers with their epic love story, Prinze and Cook reunited in September 2016, and caused quite a stir among those longing for a sequel.
“Cup of coffee with the homegirl @rachaelleighcook,” the Scooby Doo actor captioned the Instagram photo. “#BeenTooLong #OldFriendsNewFriends.”
The cast has yet to reconnect onscreen, but ahead of the movie’s 20th anniversary, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, who played mean girl Taylor Vaughn, revealed that the actors were a tight-knit group who did keep in touch.
“I can remember being on set, and realizing that we were all looking at each other, and being like, ‘This is great. This is the best time ever, and I can’t believe we’re all getting to do this,’” she told Us Weekly exclusively in October 2018. “We were all so young and it was just exciting.
O’Keefe said that her favorite memory from filming was spending time with Cook and “going through my life and constantly running into her” over the years.
Cook, for her part, credits the death of Walker, who died in a car crash in 2013, with rekindling her friendship with her onscreen love interest, Prinze, a few years back.
The Josie and the Pussycats star told Us in August 2020 that Walker was “way cooler than the rest of us” on set and after his passing she reached back out to Prinze after realizing that “you got to use the time you got.”
Looking back, Cook noted that Prinze will always be a special person in her life after they both rose to fame for their roles in She’s All That.
“I don’t think that anyone, except for the person who does it with you, can truly understand just what it is to be part of something unless they were exactly by your side when it happened,” she explained to Us. “So I think we’ll always be bonded in that sense. I hope so at least because he’s such a lovely human.”
Scroll down to see what the rom-com cast has been up to since the late ‘90s.