At the time of its release in 2006, Fickman admitted to being a little disappointed because “you’re so driven by the box office…when we came out, we were like, ‘Oh, OK, we did alright.’ I think when we won the Teen Choice Surfboard for Best Comedy, I think that was a big moment where we were all like, ‘That’s cool. People did see our movie!'”
But the “cult following,” he said, She’s the Man has built since its release has completely altered his perspective.
“Now I think I’m feeling in retrospect what I had wanted to feel when we opened,” Fickman admitted. “Like, ‘Oh, we’re not going to be the biggest movie ever made? Oh OK.’ But now, new generations are seeing it and every time I work with a new generation of actors, younger actors will come up and say to me, ‘I just saw She’s the Man. Dude, that is funny!’ I’m like, ‘Wow, alright!'”
But, he continued, “Given all due respect, it was about 1602 when Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night and that held up pretty well. So I figure that if Shakespeare was able to survive from the 1600s with our inspiration, surviving 15 years with She’s the Man, we’ve got a long way to go!”