It's the anniversary of True Romance, and we're looking back at Tarantino's
first script, directed by Tony Scott, with hearts in our eyes.
Here are seven things you didn't know about True Romance.
Probably.
(Music)
At the end of the infamous Sicilian scene, Christopher Walken's Vincenzo Coccotti
kills Dennis Hopper's Clarence Worley by shooting him in the head.
Dennis Hopper wasn't comfortable having the gun right next to his head, but
director Tony Scott assured Hopper that it was safe.
Scott even demonstrated it on himself.
What Scott didn't realize was the barrel of the gun came
out about a third of an inch when fired.
So when the gun went off it left a hole in his head.
Afterwards Scott gave Hopper a picture of his bleeding head with an offer to play
his stunt double in the future.
So the moral of the story is Dennis Hopper was right,
there was a chance his head might have actually exploded like a cantaloupe.
>> Now >> If that's a fact, tell me am I lying?
>> Let's talk about the Elvis of it all.
Quentin Tarantino has said that True Romance is his most autobiographical film
and if the opening monologue, taken from Quentin's first short film,
My Best Friend's Birthday,
of his Clarence best friend saying he wants to (Bleep) Elvis is to be believed.
Sure, we'll take your word for it QT.
Tony Scott wanted to use Elvis's music, but the estate did not give permission for
his music or likeness to be featured in the film,
which even made Val Kilmer's portrayal of Elvis a bit hard to do.
Kilmer, while obviously playing Elvis, isn't credited as Elvis.
He's actually listed as the Mentor.
(Music)
Tony Scott was originally going to show Kilmer's face as Elvis, but
without the rights, decided against it.
Besides, nobody can Elvis like actual Elvis,
especially if you're not officially Elvis anyway.
Sticking with another quick Elvis thing, in the motel fight scene,
Alabama smashes a bust of Elvis over Virgil's head.
Two years after True Romance came out Patricia Arquette meet a married
Nicolas Cage, who is a huge Elvis Presley fan.
Honeymoon in Vegas anyone?
Destroying a bus of your future ex-husband's idol is one thing,
destroying the bus of your future ex-husband's future wife's dad?
That's another thing.
And a mouthful.
But there's a segue in here somewhere, I promise.
Quentin Tarantino eventually ended up watching True Romance with Lisa Marie,
who must have had an odd experience watching someone declare that they'd
(Bleep) her dad.
And then later seeing someone use her Dad's head as a weapon.
(Sound) The film is already stacked with A-list
talent before they became A-list stars.
Perhaps the most obvious example is Brad Pitt.
So, how does a soon to be superstar like Brad Pitt get cast in a small role?
Apparently, by just asking Pitt was originally considered for Clarence,
but he asked Tony Scott to let him play the good for nothing roommate instead.
Tarantino who based the Floyd character on his own past roommates didn't originally
write him as a stoner.
He also improvised a lot of the lines making Floyd for
the most part entirely his own character.
>> Fucking kill you man.
(Noise) But the bong that Floyd smokes out of is actually inspired by Scott's
climbing partner, who once made a bong out of a honey bear named Russel.
All of which makes Floyd the biggest mutt of a character in the entire movie.
(Noise) Another soon to be superstar in the cast is of course James Gandolfini.
Before he became the mobster Tony Soprano, he was the low level mob henchmen, Virgil.
Gandolfini played the taunting soldado so
convincingly that it is hard to see someone else playing the part.
But, originally, it was someone else.
Tom Sizemore was fist cast to play Virgil but
ended up playing the role of Officer Nicholson instead.
Sizemore actually suggested James Gandolfini take the role of Virgil in
his place.
To prepare for the role, James lived out of a motel with no telephone and
didn't bathe or wash his underwear the whole time.
So even without the phone it wasn't hard for the production to find him.
They just had to follow their nose.
(Sound) In Tarantino's script, the first meeting
between Clarence and Elliot takes place at the Los Angeles Zoo, but since the zoo
wouldn't let them too close to the animals, and it's frankly a little boring,
Tony Scott changed the location to a theme park on a roller coaster.
This was very bad news for
Michael Rapaport who hates the mechanical death traps.
>> Roller coasters.
>> Unfortunately the scene needed reshoots which meant Rappaport
had to get on the roller coaster again.
He was so nervous about it he took qualudes to get through the scene.
You can actually see cut-by-cut which shots came from the first day and
which shots came from the second more
(Sound) The tattoo parlor scene is a short one but the tattoo motif was
originally going to play a much bigger role in the marketing of the film.
They even put an ad in LA Weekly, looking for someone with pale skin who would agree
to be tattooed with Clarence and Alabama for a poster for the film.
They found a banker from Orange County willing to get inked, and
famed tattoo artist, Mark Mahoney, did the tattoo.
Unfortunately for the banker, the studio went with a different poster.
Two years later, the woman had those tattoos removed because she had
a boyfriend who didn't like it.
But honestly, good for her for keeping the tat that long.
Well that'll do it for this episode.
But l let us know in the comments below what your favorite entry into
the Tarantino verse is.
And as always, click like and subscribe for more Truish Things About Movies and
sometimes quaaludes on roller coasters.
Right here on Things You Didn't Know.