Most of the East Compton Clovers were from San Diego's James Madison High School, whose cheerleading squad was ranked third in the country at that time. Though Dunst had been a cheerleader in 8th grade and Gabrielle Union cheered in high school, each squad was made up of eight actors and 12 cheerleaders. Bring It On cast a lot of real-life cheerleaders. Reed wanted to use stunt doubles as little as possible, so he had the actors attend a four-week cheerleader camp before filming. It was to see if they had a sense of rhythm and coordination. Actors auditioning for Bring It On had to have a cheer prepared. "I said to myself, this guy’s not trying to make a cheerleading movie, he’s trying to make a great movie." 5. "I took the meeting to discuss it and then I liked this guy so much," Bradford told MTV. Jesse Bradford took the part of Cliff without auditioning. James Franco auditioned just in case the show he just shot a pilot for, Freaks and Geeks, didn’t get picked up.
Jason Schwartzman and James Franco both auditioned for the role of Cliff in Bring It On. I read it and was like, 'Oh, this is a fun movie,' but then I was like, 'I don’t know.' Then I talked to Peyton Reed, the director, and he just sounded like the most awesome fun guy ever and I thought, 'OK, this is going to be a fun movie.'" 4. Dunst was convinced to take the role while she was working "in Prague on a really depressing, bad indie film.
Marley Shelton was the filmmakers' first choice before she decided to star in the other cheerleader movie that was starting production at the time, Sugar & Spice. Kirsten Dunst turned down the lead in Bring It On-more than once. Bendinger had a picture of the No Doubt frontwoman hanging over her desk while writing the script.