Welcome back to Trivia Tidbits. For those of you out of the loop, this is a little compilation of 10 movie related facts that I always find interesting. So without further ado, this weeks are…



1: Leonardo DiCaprio has stated that the characters of Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman) from “True Romance” and Doc Holiday (Val Kilmer) from “Tombstone” were the main influences on his performance as Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained“.



2: Early in his acting career, Al Pacino considered changing his name to “Sonny Scott” to avoid being typecast by his Italian name. “Sonny” was his childhood nickname.



3: The “You think I’m funny?” scene in “Goodfellas” was based on a story that Joe Pesci acted out for Martin Scorsese. While working in a restaurant as a young man, Pesci once told a mobster that he was funny and the mobster became very angry. Scorsese allowed Pesci and Ray Liotta to improvise the scene. He did not tell the other actors in the scene what would happen because he wanted their genuine surprised reactions.



4: When it was initially released in the summer of 1975, over 67 million Americans went to see “Jaws“, making it the first ever summer “blockbuster”.



5: Film an TV star (better known for “Frasier“) Kelsey Grammer has had some serious personal bad luck. His father was murdered in the Virgin Islands. His sister was murdered while finishing a shift working at a Red Lobster in Colorado Springs and his two stepbrothers (from his father’s second marriage) were killed in a shark/scuba accident.



6: Like most films, James Cameron’s “Aliens” wasn’t shot in sequence. For added realism, Cameron filmed the scene where we first meet the Colonial Marines (one of the earliest scenes) last. This was so that the camaraderie of the Marines was realistic because the actors had spent months filming together.



7: Actress Zooey Deschanel suffers from an allergy to gluten, dairy, and eggs but also suffers from ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).



8: Mick Jagger supposedly tried out for the role of Dr. Frank N’ Furter in “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” before Tim Curry was cast.



9: All the actors playing vampires in “Interview With The Vampire” were required to hang upside down for up to thirty minutes at a time during the make-up application. This would force all the blood in their bodies to rush to their heads, causing the blood vessels in their faces to bulge out. The make up artists would then trace over the swollen veins creating the eerie translucent-skinned vampire look. Unfortunately for the actors, they would have to repeat the process several times over, as the blood would quickly drain from their heads. This, in part, accounts for the lengthy make-up process.



10: Most of the solo shots of Rod Steiger during the famous taxicab scene in “On the Waterfront” were done after Marlon Brando had left for the day. Brando had it in his contract that he could finish shooting before the normal quitting time so that he could make his daily session with his psychiatrist. Steiger was deeply hurt and annoyed at Brando’s rudeness and lack of courtesy to a fellow actor, as it was customary, in a two-shot, for an actor in close-up to be fed his lines by the other actor or for the other actor to just be there so the first actor would have him or her to play to. Steiger used his negative emotions to enhance his performance, and though he paid tribute to Brando as a great actor, he personally loathed him thereafter. Director Elia Kazan stood in for Brando in the back of the cab so Steiger would have someone to emote to.

So there you have it. 10 esoteric Tidbits to masticate on. Some you may know. Some you may not. If you have any thoughts, stick your donations in the comment box…

(For earlier editions of Trivia Tidbits click here.)