Trivia
Dino De Laurentiis, who had produced Manhunter, passed on Silence of the Lambs because Manhunter had flopped. He gave the rights away free to Orion Pictures.
Share this
Then Secretary of Labor, Elizabeth Dole's, Washington, D.C. office doubled for that of the F.B.I. director's office in the movie.
Share this
The Tobacco Horn Worm moths used throughout the film were given celebrity treatment. They were flown first class to the set in a special carrier, had special living quarters (rooms with controlled humidity and heat), and were dressed in carefully designed costumes (body shields bearing a painted skull and crossbones)
Share this
Most of the film was shot in Pittsbugh, which was chosen for its large variety of landscapes and architecture. Some of the film's interior scenes, including the Baltimore jail scene in the beginning and the ballroom scene of Lecter in his cage, were shot in Soldiers and Sailors Memorial located on Fifth Avenue in the Oakland area of Pittsburgh.
Share this
The events in this film occur after the events in Manhunter. Although there are several characters common to both films, there are only two actors who appear in both movies. Both actors play different characters in both movies. Frankie Faison plays Lt. Fisk in Manhunter and Barney in Silence of the Lambs, and Dan Butler plays an FBI fingerprint expert in Manhunter and an entomologist in Silence of the Lambs.
Share this
Like Casablanca, this movie contains a famous misquoted line: most people quote Lecter's famous "Good evening, Clarice" as "Hello, Clarice." This line did, however, appear in the sequel, Hannibal. In Hannibal, when Dr. Lecter and Clarice (now played by Julianne Moore) speak on the phone for the first time, he does in fact say "Hello Clarice". This was possible put in by the writers of Hannibal as an inside joke in reference to the misquoting of the original movie.
Share this
Anthony Hopkins described his voice for Hannibal Lecter as, "a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn."
Share this
Jack Crawford was based on real-life FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas, an early member of the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit, who coached Glenn on his portrayal of a member of the BSU. Douglas, still an active FBI Special Agent during production, was in the midst of tracking Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, who was believed to have killed more than 90 women in Washington state between 1982 and 1998. Ridgway was arrested 2001, and plead guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder on November 5, 2003.
Share this
The pattern on the butterfly's back in the movie posters is not the natural pattern of the Death's-Head Hawk Moth. It is, in fact, Salvador Dalí's "In Voluptas Mors", a picture of seven naked women made to look like a human skull.
Share this
Buffalo Bill is the combination of three real-life serial killers: Ed Gein, who skinned his victims, Ted Bundy, who used the cast on his hand as bait to convince women get into his van, and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement. Gein was only positively linked to two murders, and suspected of two others. He gathered most of his materials through grave-robbing, not murder.
Share this
At least six directors have roles in this film: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Kasi Lemmons, Roger Corman, Dan Butler (who directed episodes of Frasier), and a cameo by George A. Romero.
Share this
Almost all the scenes in Hannibal's original cell have either a reflection of Hannibal or Clarice, depending on the camera's point of view.
Share this
The third EMS attendant treating Sgt. Pembrie is Jeff Busch, a paramedic and owner of a Pittsburgh emergency vehicle company that detailed all of the emergency vehicles in the film.
Share this
When Jonathan Demme filmed the scene where Lecter and Starling first meet, Anthony Hopkins said he should look directly at the camera as it panned into his line of sight. He felt Lecter should be portrayed as "knowing everything."
Share this
Jonathan Demme cast Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter based on his performance as Dr. Frederick Treves in The Elephant Man. Hopkins has himself said that he felt the sharing-and-caring role of Dr. Frederick Treves was rather dull.
Share this
After Lecter was moved from Baltimore, the plan was to be dress him in a yellow or orange jumpsuit. Anthony Hopkins convinced Jonathan Demme and costume designer Colleen Atwood that the character would seem more clinical and unsettling if he was dressed in pure white. Hopkins has since said the got the idea from his fear of dentists.
Share this
Brooke Smith and Ted Levine were actually very close on the set, making Jodie Foster refer to Brooke Smith as Patricia Hearst' a kidnapping victim who later fell in love with her kidnapper.
Share this
Anthony Hopkins invented the fast, slurping-type sound that Hannibal Lecter does. He did it spontaneously during filming on the set, and everyone thought it was great. Director Jonathan Demme became annoyed with it after a while, but denied his irritation.
Share this
The filmmakers were prepared to go to Montana to shoot a flashback sequence depicting Clarice's runaway attempt. After filming the dialogue between Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, director Jonathan Demme realized it would be pointless to cut away from their performances and announced, "I guess we aren't going to Montana."
Share this
Jodie Foster, Jonathan Demme and Scott Glenn, and a few other cast and crew members did a great deal of research at the FBI training facility in Quantico, Virginia. They studied under criminal profiling agents, learned about firearms and agent training, and sat in on a number of classes.
Share this
The first moth cocoon found in one of the victim's throats was made from a combination of Tootsie Rolls(TM) and gummy bears, so it would be edible if swallowed.
Share this
The film was originally scheduled for released in fall of 1990. Orion Pictures delayed its release until late January 1991 so they could focus on promoting Dances with Wolves for Oscar consideration. This film won all five major Academy Awards, a notable exception to the conventional wisdom that films released early in a calendar year are forgotten by Oscar time.
Share this
In preparation for his role, Anthony Hopkins studied files of serial killers. Also, he visited prisons and studied convicted murderers and was present during some court hearings concerning serial killings.
Share this
Lechter said he ate a victim's liver with "some fava beans and nice chianti". Liver, fava beans, and wine all contain a substance called tyramine, which can kill a person who is taking a certain class of antidepressant drugs known as MAO inhibitors. MAO inhibitors were the first antidepressants developed, and were used primarily on patients in mental institutions. Lecter worked in, and was committed to, a mental institution.
Share this
When Ted Tally was writing the screenplay for the film, he suggested Jodie Foster for role of Clarice Starling. Foster had been lobbying hard for the part, but when Jonathan Demme was hired to direct, he wanted Michelle Pfeiffer instead. Pfeiffer turned the part down because she felt the film was too violent. Demme then agreed to meet Foster. He hired her after only one meeting because he said he could see her strength and determination for the part, and he felt that was perfect for Clarice.
Share this
Originally, the film was to open with Clarice Starling and a male FBI agent in the middle of a drug bust. They were to burst into the room and make a number of arrests, then the bust would be revealed as a training exercise. Jodie Foster was able to convince Jonathan Demme to change the scene because it had been done so many times before. Foster came up with the idea of opening with Starling running through the assault course.
Share this
Jodie Foster spent a great deal of time with FBI agent Mary Ann Krause prior to filming. Krause gave Foster the idea of Starling standing by her car crying. Krause told Foster that at times, the work just became so overwhelming that it was a good way to get an emotional release.
Share this
The song heard playing while "Buffalo Bill" does his dance is "Goodbye Horses" by Q. Lazzarus. More commonly-known versions of this song are performed by Psyche and by Mortal Loom sung by Ilja Rosendahl.
Share this
The Silence of the Lambs was inspired by the real-life relationship between University of Washington criminology professor and profiler Robert Keppel and serial killer Ted Bundy. Bundy helped Keppel investigate the Green River Serial Killings in Washington. Bundy was executed January 24, 1989. The Green River Killings were finally solved in 2001, when Gary Ridgway was arrested. On November 5, 2003, in a Seattle courtroom, Ridgway plead guilty to 48 counts of aggravated first degree murder.
Share this
After working with John Douglas for some time, Scott Glenn thanked him and said how fascinating it was to have been allowed into his world. Douglas laughed and told Glenn that if he really wanted to get into his world, he should listen to an audio tape of serial killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris torturing, raping, and murdering two teenage girls. Glenn listened to less than one minute of the tape, and has since said that he feels he lost a sense of innocence in doing so, and that he has never been able to forget what he heard.
Share this
In the second draft of Ted Tally's screenplay, the names of three characters had to be changed from Thomas Harris's novel for legal reasons: Jack Crawford became Ray Campbell, Frederick Chilton became Herbert Prentiss, and Hannibal Lecter became Gideon Quinn.
Share this
Despite being recently declared bankrupt, Orion still managed to raise $200,000 for the film's Oscar campaign.
Share this
The first film widely available on home video at the time of the Academy Awards ceremony to win Best Picture.
Share this
After being cast as Buffalo Bill, Ted Levine developed his character by reading profiles of serial killers. Levine later said he found the material very disturbing. Since Bill was a cross-dresser, he went to a few transvestite bars and interviewed some patrons.
Share this
As of 2013, one of three films to win the top five Oscars: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Screenplay (Adapted). The others are It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Share this
Thematic parallel: The tune played by the music box in Bimmel's bedroom is from the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opera "The Magic Flute." Also from a music box, the magic tune releases the heroine from the clutches of a lecherous character who 'covets' her throughout the opera.
Share this
Clarice Starling was chosen by the American Film Institution as the sixth greatest film hero (out of fifty), the highest ranked female on the list; Hannibal Lecter was chosen as the #1 greatest film villain (also out of fifty).
Share this
Jodie Foster claims that during the first meeting between Lecter and Starling, Anthony Hopkins's mocking of her southern accent was improvised on the spot. Foster's horrified reaction was genuine; she felt personally attacked. She later thanked Hopkins for generating such an honest reaction.
Share this
John Hurt, Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Stewart, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson, and Robert De Niro were all considered for the role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Jeremy Irons turned down the role; he'd just played Claus von Bulow in Reversal of Fortune and didn't want to play another dark character.
Share this
Gene Hackman bought the rights to "The Silence of the Lambs." He planned to direct the film and play either Lecter or Jack Crawford. He withdrew after watching a clip of himself in Mississippi Burning at the The 61st Annual Academy Awards, which made him uneasy about taking more violent roles.
Share this
Contrary to popular rumor, writer Thomas Harris saw the film shortly after it came out. According to a New York Magazine profile of Harris, "The Silence of the Writer," by Phoebe Hoban (15 April 1991), he called it "a great movie. . . I've been surrounded by it, so I wanted to see it. I admire Jonathan Demme, and we were very fortunate to have him and Ted Tally, and we were very lucky with the cast."
Share this
Michael Keaton, Mickey Rourke, and Kenneth Branagh were all considered for the role of Jack Crawford.
Share this
Although when characters are talking to Starling, they often talk direct to camera, when she is talking to them, she is always looking slightly off-camera. Director Jonathan Demme has explained that this was done so as the audience would directly experience her POV, but not theirs, hence encouraged the audience to more readily identify with her.
Share this
Anthony Hopkins said he saw Lecter as similar to HAL in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey; a highly complex, highly intelligent, highly logical killing machine who seems to know everything going on around him.
Share this
After Jodie Foster first read the Thomas Harris novel, she tried to buy the rights herself, only to find Gene Hackman had beaten her to it.
Share this
The idea to use glass in Lecter's Baltimore cell as opposed to traditional bars came from production designer Kristi Zea. The idea came about because director Jonathan Demme was unhappy shooting the Lecter scenes through bars, as he felt they negated the sense of intimacy between Lecter and Starling which he was trying to achieve.
Share this
As of 2013, the only horror film to win an Oscar for Best Picture. Only two others have been nominated: The Exorcist and Jaws).
Share this
Sean Connery was director Jonathan Demme's first choice to play Hannibal Lecter, but he turned the part down. Connery later did a similar serial-killer thriller called Just Cause, where Ed Harris plays a sort of bible-bashing, redneck rip-off of Hannibal Lecter. The film was neither a critical or commercial smash like The Silence of the Lambs was.
Share this
Hannibal mentions the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius to Clarice in the asylum. Marcus Aurelius, played by Richard Harris, was a character in Ridley Scott's Gladiator. Jonathan Demme won the Best Director Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs, beating out Ridley Scott who was nominated in the same category for Thelma & Louise). Ridley Scott went on to direct Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs.
Share this
When Anthony Hopkins found out that he was cast as Hannibal Lecter based on his performance as Dr. Frederick Treves in The Elephant Man he questioned Jonathan Demme and said "But Dr. Treves was a good man." To which Demme replied "So is Lecter, he is a good man too. Just trapped in an insane mind."
Share this
Gay rights protesters complaining that making Buffalo Bill a transsexual was highly clichéd and a reflection of and/or pandering to public hostilities around the issue of sexual orientation.
Share this
According to Jonathan Demme, there were 300 applicants for the role of Clarice Starling. Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry auditioned for the role, and Andie MacDowell was also considered. Meg Ryan, Michelle Pfeiffer and Melanie Griffith turned the role down because of the disturbing subject matter.
Share this
According to an old news article that Starling reads on microfilm, "Judge Detox" presided over Dr. Lecter's murder trial.
Share this
Buffalo Bill's dance was not included in the original draft of the screenplay, although it appears in the novel. It was added at the insistence of Ted Levine, who thought the scene was essential in defining the character.
Share this
Orion's decision to promote this film as a 1991 Oscar contender resulted in having two choose between two other releases later in the year: Little Man Tate and Blue Sky. As Orion executives planned to promote Jodie Foster as a Best Actress nominee, they decided to give her some extra exposure by releasing the former picture, which she both appeared in and directed. Foster ended up winning Best Actress. Blue Sky ended up waiting three more years to be released, but when it did, it resulted in Jessica Lange also winning a Best Actress Oscar.
Share this
Australia's Office of Film & Literature Classification (OFLC) originally gave the film an "R" rating. The distributors lobbied for it be rated 'M' without editing. The "R" remained for 2 years, until the OFLC created a new film rating, "MA15+", meaning persons under 15 years must be accompanied by a parent of guardian. The film was re-rated in 1993.
Share this
Despite the fact that this was filmed in the standard spherical format, "Filmed in Panavision" is listed in the end credits.
Share this
When Agent Starling goes through a victim's closet and closes the room's door, a Deborah Harry poster appears on the wall. Director Jonathan Demme is a fan of Deborah Harry.
Share this
At the beginning of the movie, when Clarice Starling is looking for Jack Crawford, who is investigating the killer known as "Buffalo Bill," the first office she goes to has what appear to be notes about the investigation on a blackboard. Among them are two short quotations from the E.E. Cummings poem "Buffalo Bill's / defunct": "1-2-3-4-5" and, near the bottom of the board (the right side of the board isn't visible): "how do you like -- blue-eyed boy now --" The latter appears to be quoting (slightly misquoting, actually) the final lines of the poem: "how do you like your blue-eyed boy / Mister Death."
Share this
Selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry in December 2011, as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Share this
The portrayal of the character Dr. Hannibal Lecter is rated as the #1 villain on the American Film Institute's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains list.
Share this
Brooke Smith entered in and out of the pit by crouching through a small door that was half her size. It was then covered with dirt to keep it out of sight of the camera.
Share this
Ed Harris turned down the role of Jack Crawford because he didn't find the role interesting and would rather have played Hannibal Lecter.
Share this
When Clarice visits Dr. Hannibal Lecter in his new facility, Lecter insists she continue telling him about her childhood as part of the agreement. Jodie Foster, reluctantly, continues her story about running away. Midway through her confessions, she mentions taking a lamb with her. If one listens closely after she says, "I thought if I could save just one..." a distant sound of something being dropped can be heard in the background. A crewman dropped a wrench during filming. Director Jonathan Demme panicked, thinking it would ruin the scene completely. However, Foster remained in character and continued the story, ultimately convincing Demme to keep the footage. After "Cut" was said, Foster turned her head to the crew and yelled, "What the Hell was that!"
Share this
Cameo
Roger Corman:
The veteran filmmaker and president of New World Pictures played the FBI Director.
Share this
George A. Romero:
the bearded man who accompanies Chilton and the two guards who forcibly remove Clarice Starling after her final meeting with Lecter.
Share this
Spoilers
After the shootout with Gumb, Clarice has partially-burned gunpowder buried in the skin on the side of her face, the result of a near-miss. One name for this type of injury is "coal miner's tattoo" , a clever reference to the character's background.
Share this
In his first meeting with Clarice Starling, Lecter describes the drawing on his cell wall as "the Duomo, seen from the Belvedere" in Florence, Italy. Starling later finds Buffalo Bill living in Belvedere, Ohio.
Share this
In the film, Lecter tells Senator Martin that Buffalo Bill's real name is "Louis Friend", an anagram of iron sulfide, or fool's gold. In the novel, he gives the name "Billy Rubin". This is a play on bilirubin, a pigment found in feces and the color of Dr. Chilton's hair.
Share this
The FBI was very impressed by the film's accuracy in depicting criminal investigations, serial killers, and their victims. However, they protested against Clarice discovering Buffalo Bill on her own because inexperienced agents are never sent alone on dangerous assignments. When Jonathan Demme explained to them that he wouldn't change it because it was the movie's psychological climax, they agreed, saying that it would be the most improbable course of action of all time, never to be repeated again.
Share this
In an early version of Ted Tally's screenplay, Lecter's courthouse escape plan is revealed when the head of SWAT team recognizes the body.
Share this
The position of Boyle's body after Lecter has disemboweled and hung him from the cell was specifically based on the work of painter Francis Bacon.
Share this
As revealed on the Blu-Ray documentaries, "Breaking The Silence" and "From Page To Screen", both the film's beginning and ending were altered. Ted Tally's screenplay called for the film to begin with an FBI Raid not unlike the one featured in the opening sequence of Hannibal. Thomas Harris' book ends with Lecter writing a threatening letter to Dr. Chilton. Ted Tally and Jonathan Demme decided it would be necessary for Lecter to track Chilton to a tropical island for a more dramatic and audience-pleasing closing, plus an all-expense studio-paid trip to shoot somewhere warm.
Share this
The final lines are not delivered by Clarice as she repeats, "Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?... Dr. Lecter?", but rather, it is Dr. Chilton who delivers the last dialogue: "Hey, what? Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. Is the security system all set up?....Thank you. I appreciate that."
Share this
