Here’s all you need to know about Leigh Steinberg, who inspired Jerry Maguire. Cameron Crowe’s dramedy, released in 1996, stars Tom Cruise of the Mission Impossible series as a 35-year-old sports agent looking for professional respectability and a happy love life. The film’s plot is mostly made up, although it does include significant incidents from Steinberg’s life.

AP Photo/Chris Carlson

After reevaluating his professional ambitions, Cruise’s protagonist at Sports Management International is dismissed in Jerry Maguire. He starts his own agency and falls in love with Dorothy Boyd (Renée Zellweger), the mother of a charismatic little boy called Ray (Jonathan Lipnicki). Jerry tries to get a massive contract for NFL wide receiver Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in the 1996 film, all while balancing his personal and business life.

Because of its quotable language and charming lead performances, Jerry Maguire has remained a classic romantic comedy decades after its premiere.

Crowe “shadowed” Steinberg for 18 months in the early 1990s before penning Jerry Maguire, according to a 2020 report (via Sky Sports). Over the course of 18 months, the filmmaker visited several NFL games, including the Super Bowl, in order to get a thorough understanding of the life of a top sports agent. Steinberg, who had just turned 44 at the time, was the agent for Washington State quarterback Drew Bledsoe, who was taken first overall by the New England Patriots in the 1993 draft. In Jerry Maguire, the main character’s sports agent is dismissed just before the NFL Draft, and this is when the plot diverges from the subject’s true experience. Steinberg has always worked for himself, according to a 2014 story (via Parade):

“I began my practice in the card room of my parents house in West Los Angeles… I was my own secretary, answered the phone myself, [and] did my own typing and Xeroxing for the first six years. I sat on a lounge chair in the back yard near the pool and made calls.”

Crowe alters the facts concerning Steinberg’s personal life for Jerry Maguire’s romantic story. Tom Cruise’s character, for example, falls in love with Dorothy after beginning his own agency, while the real-life subject married his wife Linda in 1985 and already had four clients in the NFL Draft’s Top 12 that year. Furthermore, all of Jerry Maguire’s most famous lines were created by Crowe and are entirely fake. The film does, however, depict Steinberg’s tumultuous lifestyle and the fact that he often had to travel home to deal with marital problems. Following the release of Jerry Maguire, he battled alcoholism in the early 2000s as a consequence of personal and professional troubles. Steinberg admits in a 2021 article (via Variety) that the personal component of his employment – which is mentioned in Jerry Maguire – pushed him to stay sober:

“I just thought, ‘What have I allowed to happen? … I don’t have cancer. I live in a country with the highest standard of living. I have three wonderful kids. What excuses do I have to sit and wallow in alcoholism?”

Renée Zellweger Recreates Iconic ‘Jerry Maguire’ Scene With Sir Ben Kingsley – WATCH

Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger in Jerry Maguire | CREDIT: EVERETTE

Renee Zellweger has delegated the delivery of one of her most famous movie lines to another actress.

Renée Zellweger reprised the classic “you had me at hello” scene from the 1996 romance film Jerry Maguire on Monday’s Late Show With James Corden, with Sir Ben Kingsley replacing Tom Cruise as her scene partner.

“Sir Ben, you have given some iconic performances in your career,” Corden remarked, “and I was interested to see how you would fare delivering some of Renée’s most iconic lines.”

Cruise’s main character, of course, expresses his love for Zellweger’s Dorothy in a long monologue in the original sequence. She eventually stops him with the remark, “Shut up.  You had me at hello.”

During the scene, Zellweger, 50, played out Cruise’s speech, while Kingsley deadpanned the phrase “You had me at hello.” The crowd — and Zellweger herself — erupted in applause and screams when Kingsley delivered his lines.

In 2016, on the 20th anniversary of Jerry Maguire, Zellweger spoke with Entertainment Tonight about the film’s creation. “It was one of those experiences when you’re making a movie, just things were coming together,” he said. “It’s what we all work for, where you just know. It’s just firing on all cylinders, [and] was such a joy.”

She also said that she had maintained contact with Cruise, whom she regards as a “a really good person.”

Renee also discussed a little role she performed in Reality Bites, which was released 25 years ago, on Monday’s Late Show. Renee tells James that she discovered after the fact that the character she played was Tami Bimbo.

“I was Tami Bimbo,” said Zellweger. “I didn’t know I was Tami Bimbo. Nobody sent me on an audition to play Tami Bimbo!”

She said, “I was Tami Bimbo. It was an inside joke with a crew of 200 people.”