5 Things You Never Knew About Michelle Pfeiffer’s ‘Dangerous Minds’

Lauren Novak August 11, 10:56 am

DANGEROUS MINDS, Michelle Pfeiffer, Renoly Santiago, 1995 — Everett Collection

Released on August 11, 1995, Dangerous Minds told the true story of LouAnne Johnson, a retired U.S. Marine who took on a teaching job at a struggling California high school. The film was based on Johnson’s 1992 autobiography My Posse Don’t Do Homework and followed her unconventional methods as she worked to connect with African-American and Latino students from East Palo Alto, a community facing poverty and segregation.

While critics were divided on the film’s portrayal of inner-city life, it spawned a short-lived TV series and earned a permanent place in ’90s pop culture thanks in part to its unforgettable soundtrack. In honor of its anniversary, let’s learn some interesting facts about the film:

1 Michelle Pfeiffer was also a producer

DANGEROUS MINDS, Michelle Pfeiffer, 1995

Linda R Chen/Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection

When Michelle Pfeiffer signed on to play LouAnne Johnson, she was not only the star but also the producer through her own production company. While critics were divided on the movie itself, her performance stood out. The success of Dangerous Minds, which grossed $179.5 million worldwide, reinforced her reputation as both an accomplished actress and producer.

2 Pfeiffer got pregnant during filming and had to hide it

Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection

Pfeiffer was pregnant during production, which meant the costume and camera crews had to find creative ways to hide her growing belly. Long skirts, oversized sweaters and strategically placed props kept her pregnancy from being noticeable on screen according to Watch Mojo. In some scenes, she was shown carrying large objects that doubled as a natural part of her character’s movements while helping conceal her figure. Did you ever realize this while watching?

3 One star died tragically just a few years after the film

Buena Vista Pictures/Everett Collection

Wade Dominguez, who played Emilio Ramirez, delivered one of the film’s most memorable performances and Emilio’s story became one of the emotional anchors of the movie. Sadly, Dominguez’s life was cut short when he died of respiratory failure in 1998 at the age of 32, just three years after Dangerous Minds was released.

4 Two Dylans

Everett Collection

One of the lighter touches in the movie is a running gag about the confusion between poet Dylan Thomas and musician Bob Dylan. The joke works on multiple levels, as Bob Dylan took his stage name in tribute to the Welsh poet. This showed off LouAnne’s unconventional teaching methods.

5 The soundtrack produced a major hit … with a video by a future mega-director

If you remember one thing about this film, it’s likely the Coolio song “Gangsta’s Paradise,” which hit #1 in 14 countries and won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. Built around a Stevie Wonder sample, the song was inescapable in the mid-’90s — as was the video, which famously had Coolio and Pfeiffer stare deeply into each other’s eyes. The video was a career breakthrough for director Antoine Fuqua, who was 30 and been directing music videos for several years.

Fuqua said in a 2013 interview that “The movie became a big hit and [producer] Jerry Bruckheimer was kind enough to give me a lot of credit for it because they used my music video,” which launched him into a film career. Fuqua began directing feature films, including the Oscar-nominated 2001 Denzel Washington/ Ethan Hawke drama Training Day. and all three Denzel Washington Equalizer movies.