Did You Know?
Every contract that Peter Sellers signs includes a clause which stipulates that his accommodation must have the bed facing East-West. Chance says: "I like to sleep with my head facing North". The attorney he's with says "But this bed is facing west!"
Share this
In different versions, the end credits are either shown over retakes of Chance saying a line that was not in the movie, (the message from Raphael, restored to the home video version) or shown over TV white noise. Peter Sellers was at the film's screening at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival and was furious with director Hal Ashby and the producers for including the 'outtakes' version of the end credits at this performance as well as the audience's reaction to them. This incident may have finally made the producers change their minds. When the film opened soon after in Australia in late May 1980, the entire end credits were removed from all prints (leading to a deafening thud on the soundtrack after the film's final line). These prints were all replaced with versions including the 'white noise' end credits, including the film's main theme by composer Johnny Mandel.
Share this
Henry B. Dawkins, who plays Billings-the X-Ray Technician, really was an X-Ray Technician. He was the head of the Radiology Department at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College (in Asheville, North Carolina, one of the shooting locations of this film) in the early 1990's.
Share this
Despite Peter Sellers' repeated requests, the producers would not remove the out-takes from the version they submitted to Cannes.
Share this
Originally there was a different last shot planned for the funeral sequence at the end of the film. Director Hal Ashby was chatting with another director one day about filming when he commented how well everything was going. "It's like walking on air," he said, then suddenly was struck with a thought. He changed the last shot to the one that appears now in the movie.
Share this
It took Peter Sellers' nearly nine years to get this movie made by a studio, mostly because by the 1970s Sellers' career had hit rock bottom and no studio in Hollywood would dare work with him. After the revival (and success) of the Pink Panther movies, Lorimar pictures finally greenlit the project.
Share this
Peter Sellers was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actor. Some said the reason Sellers lost was because of the outtakes at the very end of the movie as the credits are rolling. Sellers himself later said the outtakes "broke the spell" of the movie.
Share this
After the novel's release and the subsequent purchase of rights to the book, Peter Sellers successfully lobbied for the lead role by sending a telegram to author Jerzy Kosinski with the message "Gardener available for work". It was during casting and after the success of the later Pink Panther movies that Sellers was the only choice for the lead role.
Share this
Peter Sellers prepared for the role of Chance by recording his voice over and over again, experimenting with different styles and tones. He chose a deliberately blank style to convey the character.
Share this
In the scene where Chance decides to try kissing Eve, he is watching The Thomas Crown Affair from 1968 on television as his example. Hal Ashby, the director of "Being There" was the editor of that film.
Share this
Director Cameo
Hal Ashby:
The bearded man at a filing cabinet in the newsroom, just before Chance's TV appearance.
Share this
Spoilers
Laurence Olivier was offered the role of Benjamin Rand, but passed when he read the completed script. He said he didn't want to be in a movie where Shirley MacLaine has to masturbate.
Share this
The inscription "Life is a state of mind" is on Rand's tomb and also serves as the last line in the movie. These words were also inscribed on Peter Sellers' own tomb, when he died a year after the movie was released.
Share this
The South African Publications Control Board ordered that the final minutes of this film be cut from the South African release print as the scene showing Chance walking on the water surface "might offend many South African Christians".
Share this
