For Reels: Another collection of great movie trivia

• Woody Harrelson’s father, Charles Harrelson, was a free-lance contract killer.

• Only 3 times has the Best Director Oscar been awarded to a duo: Wise & Robbins for (1961), the Coen Brothers for (2007), and “the Daniels” for (2022).

• In 2003, AFI made a list of the greatest movie heroes. The top three in descending order were James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Atticus Finch ( ).

• And the top three villains in descending order were Darth Vader, Norman Bates, and Hannibal Lecter.

• When Cate Blanchett played Bob Cylan in (2007) she stuffed a rolled up pair of socks down her pants and said it helped her walk like a man.

• After shooting Warner Bros studio executives screened it and none of them laughed. They thought it would be a disaster until Mel Brooks set up another screening: for Warner Bros employees. The studio agreed to greenlight it when they saw their workers laughing uproariously throughout the entire movie.

• You may have heard of the legendary movie producer Louis B. Mayer. He was a Ukrainian immigrant whose family fled from Russian oppression, which led to him growing up in Saint John, NB. And he is one of the M’s in MGM.

• Mayer told a young Jack Nicholson who gave his very first test screening, “I don’t know what we can use you for, but if we ever do need you, we’ll need you real bad.”

• Before pursuing an acting career, Steve Carrell planned on becoming a lawyer. One day, however, he had a great awakening while doing a very mundane thing. As he was filling out an application form, he came to the question, “Why do you want to become a lawyer?” He couldn’t think of anything to put.

• Many people were surprised that Alfonso Caurón decided to release on Netflix, especially since it was so beautifully shot and would look fantastic on the big screen. But he knew that international movies rarely did well at the box office and that he’d reach more audiences by going with the giant streaming service. It worked. I’m not sure if it led to this, but it got nominated for best picture and was the first international movie to be awarded best director. The following year another international movie (not his) was the first to be awarded best picture ( ).

• When Dustin Hoffman was a young teen, he played Tiny Tim in his school play, He was dared by his peers to change the last line from “God bless us, everyone!” to “God bless everyone, G*d**mit!” He did it and was then suspended.

• Carrie Fischer did some minor re-writes for (1991) during its production. One of the main jobs she had was helping polish Tinkerbell’s lines, and she was responsible for probably the greatest line for the character: “You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming?… That’s where I’ll be waiting.”

• There are two actors who are tied for most Oscar nominations a win: Glenn Close and Peter O’Toole.

• During tryouts, Keanu Reeves was auditioning for Bill and Alex Winter for Ted. They both got cast but for the opposite characters.

• Kate Winslet’s children refer to Leonardo DiCaprio as “Uncle Leo.”

• You may not be surprised that Jack Black is a rock music fanatic. According to him, The Who is the greatest band ever, mainly because they were the first to “rock hard.”

• Margot Robbie wore some of Sharon Tate’s actual jewelry in (2019), which was both approved and provided by her sister, Debra Tate.

• When Jamie Foxx ( ) was in the second grade, he was so good at telling jokes that his teacher used him as a reward to the class. If they behaved, she would allow Jamie to tell jokes at the end of class.

• In 1993 Tom Hanks played Andrew Becket in It was originally offered to Michael Keaton who turned it down. Years later the opposite would happen: Hanks turned down the role of Ray Kroc in (2016) which ended up going to Michael Keaton.

• When The Hurt Locker won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, it was the then lowest grossing BP winner of all time. Coincidentally it beat out Avatar, which was the then biggest grossing movie of all time. Also coincidentally, the directors of these movies were exes. James Cameron said at the time that he “wouldn’t bet against her.”

Best Actress:

Jessica Chastain as Mya in

Best Actor: Anthony Mackie as Greene in

Best Quote:“There’s enough bang in there to send us all to Jesus. I’m gonna die, I wanna die comfortable.” – Jeremy Renner as Staff Sergeant William James in

Most of my favourite bits of movie trivia have already been shared on this blog. It’s getting harder for me to find good ones these days. I hope this was a good one for you. 🙂