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When a devastating hit knocks a professional football legend and quarterback Cap Rooney out of the game, a young, unknown third-stringer is called in to replace him. Having ridden the bench for years because of a string of bad luck stories and perhaps insufficient character, Willie Beaman seizes what may be his last chance, and lights up the field with a raw display of athletic prowess. His stunning performance over several games is so outstanding and fresh it seems to augur a new era in the history of this Miami franchise, and forces aging coach Tony D’Amato to reevaluate his time-tested values and strategies and begin to confront the fact that the game, as well as post-modern life may be passing him by. Adding to the pressure on D’Amato to win at any cost is the aggressive young President/Co-owner of the team, Christina Pagniacci, now coming into her own after her father’s death. Christina’s driving desire to prove herself in a male dominated world is intensified by her focus on the marketing and business of football, in which all coaches and players are merely properties. World premiere: December 16, 1999 at the Mann Village Theatre in Westwood, CA US release: December 22, 1999 Estimated budget: $55,000,000 Box office: $75,530,832 (USA), $100,230,832 (worldwide)

Cast & crew

Related photos

View posters, stills, screencaptures and more from Any Given Sunday.

Movie quotes

Christina Pagniacci: “No intensity, no victory.”

Christina Pagniacci: “Why the hell do you think my father put me in charge you bullheaded moron!”

Christina Pagniacci: (as she’s passing a naked player in the locker room) “Don’t stiffen on me.”

Production notes

Just as Stone was ahead of the curve when he cast Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July), Michael Douglas (Wall St.), Kevin Costner (JFK), Val Kilmer (The Doors), Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe (Platoon), and Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers), so might perceptions of Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx alter when audiences see their performances in Any Given Sunday. To date, Diaz has been praised for her delightful charm in such films as My Best Friend’s Wedding and There’s Something About Mary, and Foxx has been praised for his comedic skills on television’s In Living Color and his own series, The Jamie Foxx Show.

Stone sought to explore the edges of Diaz’s and Foxx’s skills in their respective roles as Christina Pagniacci and Willie Beamen, and was rewarded with the actors’ enthusiasm for the project. “What I loved about the script and Oliver’s approach to the film,” Diaz says, “is that at some point you see every character’s side. You may not agree, but in the end you’re going to have to choose the person you want to take sides with. At some point you have to understand that Christina is representing the future. She knows the way the sport has been played over the past 30 years, as a team sport, achieving a goal together. But at this point in professional football, she knows that those days are over.

“Christina knows that it’s a big money-making business with advertisements, networks, endorsements…an entertainment industry,” continues Diaz. “She’s trying to take advantage of that for her team so that it can keep going and start winning again.”

For Cameron Diaz, costume designer Mary Zophres altered the warm colors in which she clad her in There’s Something About Mary to suit the character of Christina Pagniacci. “We decided to keep Cameron in grays, navies, a somewhat icier palate. It gives her the presence of a woman living and working in a man’s world, and is Christina’s way of making herself be taken seriously.”

Awards and nominations

Won – ALMA Award – Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film
Won – Blockbuster Entertainment Award – Favorite Actress, Drama
Nominated – Teen Choice Award – Choice Hissy Fit, Film