Did You Know?
In an effort for Tom Cruise to look more "teenage" in appearance, the producers of Risky Business put him though an unusual bit of physical training. Cruise worked out 7 days a week in order to lose ten pounds. Once that had been accomplished, he immediately ceased working out and ate extremely fatty foods in order to add a layer of baby fat. This is how he achieved that "fresh-faced" teenage look.
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At Joel's brothel party the song "Swamp" by the Talking Heads plays in the background - one line of the song contains the phrase "Risky Business".
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Tangerine Dream based parts of the film's score on material from their previous albums, particularly the album "Force Majeure": The title track is the basis for Lana's theme, and the intro to "Cloudburst Flight" was reused for "Guido the Killer Pimp". "No Future (Get off the Babysitter)" is based on the title track to the album "Exit".
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The dance scene where Joel dances to "Old Time Rock N' Roll" was completely improvised. In the script Tom Cruise was simply instructed to "dance to rock music".
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The exhaust and engine sounds were dubbed from another Porsche 928 that had a hole in its rear muffler, therefore created much louder sound that a stock 928.
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The sunglasses Joel wears are the Ray-Ban Wayfarer model. Annual sales of Wayfarers were languishing as of 1983 but skyrocketed 2000% after the movie's release.
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In the DVD commentary, Diane Lane says that Tom Cruise got the script for the film while shooting The Outsiders and had asked Lane to audition for the role of Lana. Her father later told the producers there was "no way his daughter was playing a twenty-something hooker".
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In an October 2009 interview with "The A.V. Club," actor Bronson Pinchot said that Tom Cruise would often spend his off-camera time on the set of 'Risky Business' making unsolicited, apropos-of-nothing homophobic remarks. Pinchot told the interviewer, "he [Cruise] was tense and made constant, constant unrelated homophobic comments, like, 'You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?' I mean, his lingo was larded with the most...there was no basis for it. It was like, 'It's a nice day, I'm glad there are no gay people standing here.' Very, very strange."
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When Joel revs the Porsche engine at the girls in front of the movie theater, an Annie movie poster can be seen in the background.
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Some of the album covers in the record store window he exits with Miles include:
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- No Fun Allowed - Glenn Frey
- Robert Plant - Pictures at Eleven
- Rolling Stones - Still Life
- Fleetwood Mac - Mirage
- Frank Zappa - Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch
- Queen - Hot Space
- Crosby Stills & Nash - Daylight Again
- Kenny Rogers - Love Will Turn You Around
- Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
- Rocky III: Original Motion Picture Score
Cameo
Sean Penn:
as the man sitting in the passenger seat as Joel first takes the Porsche for a spin. The cameo was a favor for director Paul Brickman.
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Spoilers
Writer/Director Paul Brickman had a completely different ending for the film with a rather pessimistic tone, with Joel being denied admission to Princeton and he and Lana sitting on the roof of a building overlooking the city pondering his future and hers, and for once Lana lets her guard down. The studio however, wanted a "feel good" ending, because this was the popular theme of teen movies at the time, so both versions were shot and shown to a test audience and it was agreed that their preference would be the ending for the film.
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