4. Allen’s Home Improvement wife Patricia Richardson and Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton were considered for the role of Laura, but Wendy Crewson ultimately landed the role of Scott’s ex-wife.
4. Judge Reinhold nabbed the part of Laura’s spouse (and Scott’s nemesis) Neal Miller, though Jeff Daniels, Stanley Tucci, and Bradley Whitford were considered. He would go on to appear in all three films.
6. The hardest role to cast was Charlie, Scott’s son, as they were looking for a child actor between the ages of 6 and 9, “who had sensitivity” casting director Renee Rousselot shared and was “able to really access those emotions, but have a real innocence about him.” The production team launched open auditions in 13 different cities before finding Eric Lloyd.
7. During filming of the original movie, Lloyd had to wear dentures after knocking out his front teeth when he went to a baseball game with his family. Oh, and that poster image of Scott and Charlie? It wasn’t actually Lloyd’s body, with the actor revealing on Reddit in 2014, “It’s some other kid standing behind a cutout of Tim Allen. And they just put my face on it. So they didn’t have to pay me for another day.”