True Romance trivia

From The Quentin Tarantino Archives

Trivia

  • Following the "eggplant scene", Dennis Hopper was concerned about being "shot" by Christopher Walken with the prop gun so close against his head for fear of being burned by the barrel. Director Tony Scott assured him the gun was 100% safe, and even tested it by having the prop man fire it against his (Scott's) own forehead. But upon firing the prop gun the barrel extended about a third of an inch and Scott ended up on the floor with blood pouring from the wound.
  • It was Brad Pitt's idea for his character to be a stoner who never leaves the couch.
  • Quentin Tarantino sold the script for $50,000 which was the minimum amount of money that can be paid for a script at the time (according to WGA rules).
  • Gary Oldman met with Tony Scott about the project and told him he hadn't read the script he'd been sent, then asked Scott what his part was like. Scott told him "You're playing a white guy who thinks he's black, and you're a pimp." Oldman immediately accepted the role.
  • Gary Oldman stated in an interview that he would like to do a film on Drexl Spivey, his character in the film.
  • The hat Brad Pitt wears in the kitchen sequence he found abandoned on the boardwalk in Venice, California. He took it, washed it, and wore it for the film.
  • Although this movie was not directed by Tarantino, it is still considered part of the Tarantino universe. The two key pieces of evidence is Lee Donowitz being the son of Sgt.. Donnie Donowitz from Inglorious Basterds, this being confirmed from Tarantino himself. The second pieces of evidence is the fact that Mr. White from Reservoir Dogs mentioned working with a girl named "Alabama".
  • In the diner scene, when Clarence asks Alabama what her turn-offs are, she replies "Persians" in the finished film. Being turned off by her character appearing racist in that scene, Patricia Arquette, who played Alabama, name-dropped a different ethnicity for each take that was shot. She said she wanted to be equally offensive to all people.
  • That's Patricia Arquette's four-year-old son Enzo Rossi in the final scene.
  • The motel room fight scene between Alabama (Patricia Arquette) and Virgil (James Gandolfini) took 5 days to shoot.
  • The genesis of True Romance began with a 50 page script by Roger Avary titles The Open Road. Avary described the plot as being about "an odd couple relationship between an uptight business man and an out-of-control hitch-hiker who travel into a Hellish mid-Western town together." When he had trouble finishing it, he asked his friend and fellow Video Archives clerk, Quentin Tarantino, to give it a shot. After several weeks, Quentin handed him over 500 hand-written pages of, what Roger Avary described as "the Bible of pop culture." Roger typed and edited the behemoth, working with Quentin on further story ideas. According to a Film Threat article from 1994, the final script was a combination of True Romance and Natural Born Killers (1994). Reportedly, it followed Quentin's original NBK script until after the prison riot. After escaping, Mickey and Mallory decide to find and kill the screenwriter who wrote the glitzy Hollywood movie about their exploits. The writer goes on the run, and True Romance was the movie he writes while trying to evade the two psychotic killers. It was told in trademark Tarantino chapter fashion, out of chronological order. When it became obvious that the miniseries-length script would never sell, they split the two stories into separate movies.
  • In the DVD commentary, Quentin Tarantino admits that this is the most autobiographical movie he has ever made.
  • According to Dennis Hopper, the only words that were improvised in the scene with Christopher Walken were "egg plant" and "cantaloupe".
  • Jack Black appears in a cameo as a theater usher in a deleted scene.
  • The scene in which Nicky (Chris Penn) and Cody (Tom Sizemore) interrogate Elliot (Bronson Pinchot) was improvised by the three actors.
  • The sunglasses Christian Slater wears throughout the movie can also be seen being worn by Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. She takes them from Buck after she wakes from her coma and wears them to shield her eyes from the florescent hospital lights.
  • Drew Barrymore was the first choice for the role of Alabama Whitman but she was unavailable.
  • Tony Scott gave Patricia Arquette the Cadillac featured heavily in the film as a gift after filming wrapped.
  • In early versions of the script the character of Drexl had several more scenes. Many were removed and re-purposed for Pulp Fiction, before being removed from that project as well.
  • According to director Tony Scott, Val Kilmer had originally wanted to play the character of Clarence. Kilmer spent 8 hours in make-up being transformed into Elvis Presley. Fortunately, he was only required for two days of filming. The character is called Mentor in the closing credits so as not to face any litigation from the Presley estate.
  • During the bloody motel room fight between Alabama (Patricia Arquette) and Virgil (James Gandolfini), Alabama smashes a porcelain bust of Elvis Presley over Virgil's head. In real life, Arquette later married Nicolas Cage (a huge Elvis fan); Cage later left her for Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley.
  • The scene on the roller coaster was filmed over two days. Michael Rapaport unfortunately has a fear of roller coasters, and suffers from acute motion sickness, facts which no one knew during the first day's filming. By the second day, the crew was prepared for this, and they gave him something to calm his nerves. As a result, one can easily tell from cut to cut on which day a particular moment was filmed by watching his face in the background. His expression goes back and forth from apprehensive and nauseous (the first day) to bland and oblivious of his surroundings (the second day).
  • Copies of the original script sent out to studios had the tag-line, "When you're tired of relationships, try a romance."
  • Quentin Tarantino said that he never visited the set of the movie during filming.
  • Gary Oldman based the character of Drexl on an actor named Willi One Blood, who he later starred with in Luc Besson's Léon: The Professional (1994).
  • Liam Neeson turned down the role of Vincenzo Coccotti.
  • Quentin Tarantino wrote the roles of Clarence Worley and Alabama Whitman with Robert Carradine and Joan Cusack in mind.
  • As a temporary music track, Film Editor Tony Ciccone put "Outshined" by Soundgarden in the scene where stoner Brad Pitt gives directions to the henchman. The result was such a hit at test screenings that a good portion of the music budget went for obtaining rights to use the hit song in the final film.
  • Bronson Pinchot ad-libbed the scene where his character was caught with the cocaine.
  • The screenplay of True Romance (1993) was originally part of a 500 page screenplay written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary called The Open Road. The other half of it was used for the film Natural Born Killers (1994). In both films Tom Sizemore plays a cop.
  • Tony Scott spent a year searching for the right actress to play Alabama Whitman. He considered and rejected Bridget Fonda, Diane Lane, Kyra Sedgwick, and Julia Roberts.
  • The trivia section in the DVD special features reports that Writer Quentin Tarantino sold this script for about $10,000. With this money he purchased the red Chevy Chevelle convertible that Vincent Vega drives in Pulp Fiction (1994)
  • When Dick Ritchie throws the suitcase full of coke into the air, a "D.A.R.E. to keep kids off drugs" bumper sticker can be seen.
  • The character of Blue Lou Boyle was originally a speaking part (with Robert De Niro as the definite favorite), but many cuts were made to Quentin Tarantino's script, including a scene featuring him. Instead, he's briefly mentioned as Vincent Coccotti's (Christopher Walken) superior.
  • The work "fuck" and its derivatives are said 225 times.
  • The roller coaster scene was filmed on and around the Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, just north of Los Angeles. The Viper is still in operation as of 2009.
  • Quentin Tarantino chose the name Alabama as an homage to Pam Grier, who was Alabama in Women in Cages (1971). The original script even had Clarence mention that the name sounded like a Pam Grier character.
  • Tom Sizemore was originally cast as Virgil before eventually assuming the role of Cody Nicholson. Sizemore recommended James Gandolfini for the role of Virgil.
  • The roller coaster scene was originally written to have taken place in a zoo. Director Tony Scott changed it to give the movie an "adrenaline rush".
  • In a 2008 Maxim article, it is revealed that the character of Lee Donowitz, played by Saul Rubinek, was envisioned as a portrayal of Hollywood producer Joel Silver by the film's director, Tony Scott. The two had just worked together on The Last Boy Scout (1991). When Scott told Rubinek that he "got Joel exactly right" during his audition, Rubinek had no idea who Joel Silver even was. In the article, Scott is quoted as saying: "The Hollywood satire is affectionate, but Joel didn't talk to me for a long time after that."
  • In Quentin Tarantino's original script Floyd D. calls Drexl a "white boy". That's why Drexl kills him and Big Don. In the original script Marty wasn't around when Drexl kills them.
  • Kevin Corrigan's character is listed as "Marvin" but he is never referred to as that name in the film. In one scene, Frankie calls him "Mad Dog". This was an ad-lib by Frank Adonis who felt that Corrigan bore a resemblance to an Irish mob hitman named Mad Dog Coll.
  • The opera piece heard during the scene with Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper is from Lakmé by Léo Delibes. It is also used in The Hunger (1983), another film directed by Tony Scott.
  • Clarence offer to shows Alabama Spider-Man #1 at the comic book store. He probably was referring to Amazing Spider-Man #1 published in 1963, one of the most sought-after modern superhero comic books. The value is extremely dependent on condition, but as of 2009 even a well-worn issue would bring at least $1000 and a perfect pristine copy might sell at auction for close to $100,000.
  • The first draft was completed in late 1988 by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary.
  • Juliette Lewis was considered for the role of Alabama Whitman. Ironically she played an analogous role in Tarantino's other original screenplay that year, "Natural Born Killers."
  • The song 'Robbers' by the 1975 has been said my lead singer Matty Healy to be based on the film.
  • A draft was written when William Lustig was attached as director, where most of the interior scenes where moved outside, including Cliff Worley's confrontation with Vincenzo Coccotti, and the whole Clarence/Drexl fight. "You go inside, you die!" he reportedly told the writers. After he left, the scenes were moved back inside.
  • The comic book that Clarence shows Alabama is "Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos" #18. In this issue, Nick has gotten a ring for his sweetheart (Pamela Hawley) that he keeps on a chain around his neck. Later in the story, he gets in a fight with a Nazi and the ring falls overboard but Fury dives into the ocean to retrieve it. What Clarence doesn't tell Alabama is that when Fury returns to give the ring to his love he finds she's been killed. On a side note, Samuel L. Jackson (who appears as Big Don) would go on to play Fury in Marvel's series of Avenger films.
  • The movie that appears on the television when Clarence and Alabama check in to their motel room is "Freejack" (1992). Coincidentally, Floyd is watching the same movie when Virgil (James Gandolfini) visits.
  • One of the original directors set up to do this was B-movie veteran William Lustig. But Tarantino turned him down because he did not believe he could do like Jonathan Demme (who went from B-movies to "regular" feature movies).
  • Early versions of the script set the mood with a couple of quotes after the title page. The first: "His films are a desperate cry from the heart of a grotesque fast food culture." -French critics on the films of Roger Corman. The second: "... Beyond all the naiveté and stupidity, beyond the vulgarity inherent in the amount of money involved, beyond all this, a certain grandeur had rooted itself into the scheme, and I could still spy a reckless and artistic splendor to the way we had carried it out." -Clifford Irving on the Howard Hughes hoax.
  • Michael Rapaport was originally cast in the role of Marvin. But the casting director later thought Rapaport was right for the role of Dick Ritchie. Dick Ritchie was originally written as an African-American in the script.
  • During the hotel drug deal negotiation scene where Clarence is discussing movies he praises Oscar winning picture 'The Deerhunter'. Christopher Walken appears in both films whilst the character of Blue Lou Boyle was intended to be played by fellow Deerhunter star Robert Di Niro. In 'The Deerhunter' Walken's Vietnam veteran character ends up shooting himself in the head after becoming addicted to drugs. In 'True Romance' he plays a drug dealer who shoots a Vietnam veteran played by Dennis Hopper in the head (Hopper having starred in another seminal 1970s Vietnam film, 'Apocalypse Now'.)
  • The film cast includes three Oscar winners: Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken and Patricia Arquette; and three Oscar nominees: Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson.
  • Quentin Tarantino wanted the role of Concotti to be played by Robert Forster. This role went to Christopher Walken.
  • Roger Avary would later revisit the idea of man's life-altering, violent encounter with a call girl in his directorial debut Killing Zoe (1993).
  • Both Dennis Hopper and Christian Slater later appeared in films written by Graham Yost: Hopper in Speed (1994) and Slater in Broken Arrow (1996) and Hard Rain (1998).
  • One of three films that stars both Dennis Hopper and Gary Oldman. The others are: Chattahoochee (1989) and Basquiat (1996).
  • The character Clarence Worley is based in large part on Quentin Tarantino himself.
  • QT has stated that True Romance in particular was heavily inspired by the works of writer Elmore Leonard whose own crime stories often took place in Detroit (where Clarence is from).
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