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Thursday July 03, 2025

TSOTP director shares unusual cast bonding experience

‘The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants’ director explains how an activity brought the cast together

By TN Web Desk
May 31, 2025
‘TSOTP’ director recalls doing unique bonding activity among cast mates
‘TSOTP’ director recalls doing unique bonding activity among cast mates

Ken Kwapis, The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants director, looked back on the biggest challenge he faced during its filming, as the movie marks its 20th anniversary.

The 2005 adaptation of Ann Brashares’ novel, starring Blake Lively, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera, and Amber Tamblyn, tells the story of four teenage girls who have been best friends since birth.

However, the four actress were strangers to each other before the film. Hence in order to create a life-long bond between them, Kwapis came up with a fun activity.

"We were rushing towards production, so I came up with a couple of exercises for them to do to bond," he told the Entertainment Weekly.

"I gave each of the four actors $75, and I instructed them to go to a thrift store in Vancouver where we were shooting, and their job was to buy something in character and to advise the others about what they should buy in character," he explained.

The activity became quite significant since the first scene that was shot was one in which Bee (Lively), Lena (Bledel), Carmen (Ferrera), and Tibby (Tamblyn) are in store and come across a pair of jeans that magically fits them all.

The pants become the tether keeping them connected, as the best friends send them back and forth to each other while spending their first summer apart as they each embark on their individual life-changing journey.

Reflecting on the importance of the bonding activity and original film scene, Kwapis said, "As you'll recall, they're not in the movie together much, just the beginning and the end, so it really was important for me and for the audience to feel like these were four best friends right away."

In addition to celebrating 20 years of The Sisterhood of Travelling Pants, Kwapis is also marking many other milestones including, Malcolm in the Middle's 25th anniversary and The Office's 20th anniversary.