Skip to main content
Movies

‘Practical Magic’: Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock Actually Drank Tequila for the Midnight Margaritas Scene

The "midnight margaritas" scene in 'Practical Magic' is one of the movie's most popular scenes. Turns out, the cast actually drank tequila while filming the scene. It became a party on the set involving the director, the cast, and members of the crew.
by Mandi Kerr
Published on
2 min read

The cast of Practical Magic didn’t have to try too hard to fake the party atmosphere in the romantic comedy’s memorable “midnight margaritas” scene.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in 'Practical Magic'
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic | Warner Bros.

The 1998 film is based on Alice Hoffman’s novel of the same name. One scene shows sisters, Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock), wake up for a late-night drink and some dancing with their Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing) and Aunt Jet (Dianne West). Mixing up margaritas the actors didn’t have mocktails but instead added actual tequila to their drinks.

The scene became a party on the ‘Practical Magic’ set

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Griffin Dunne, the director of Practical Magic, talks about filming the “midnight margaritas” scene.

A memorable moment in the romantic comedy that originally flopped in theaters, it’s become a favorite among fans. Dunne says the cast had as much fun filming the scene as their characters did. He, along with the cast and others on set, drank tequila and danced to Harry Nilsson’s “Coconut.”

“You know, one of the most fun days we had was the last shot of the day in Friday Harbor, and then we were all going to go to the soundstage in Los Angeles afterwards where we shot the girls all drinking tequila and they become nuts in the kitchen,” he said.

“Well, guess what we drank? We all drank tequila and shot that scene — thank God the DP [Director of Photography] didn’t have any — but we shot it and they all went nuts, and we all danced around,” he said. “I think ‘Lime in the Coconut’ was going.”

“And then we wrapped the scene but kept drinking and dancing to ‘Lime in the Coconut,'” Dunne added.

Nicole Kidman may or may not have supplied the tequila

Per IMDb, Bullock said in the Practical Magic DVD commentary that it was her co-star, Kidman, who provided the tequila for them to drink while filming the scene.

Nicole Kidman in 'Practical Magic'
Nicole Kidman in Practical Magic | Warner Bros. via Getty Images

Channing, who spoke with Vulture about the movie and this scene, in particular, said she couldn’t recall where exactly the tequila came from. What she did remember is that no one had a problem with drinking the real stuff.

“I don’t think any of us had any objections, I’ll put it that way,” Channing said.

She continued, saying party scenes can be particularly challenging as an actor and that the tequila certainly helped.

“I don’t know how drunk we were, but we decided to spiff it up with a drink,” she said. “I think one of the hardest things to do is a fun, raucous party scene. By take 28, it is very hard to keep that up. I think it worked.”

Watch Practical Magic on Amazon Prime Video.

Best in Entertainment