Trivia
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Spoilers (3)
The role of Harry Goldfarb was originally intended for Giovanni Ribisi. Director Darren Aronofsky wanted Ribisi for the role because he resembled the look of Harry Goldfarb, who had curly blonde hair in Hubert Selby Jr's 1978 Novel.
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The prop refrigerator for the hallucination scenes melted from the inside due to the light elements within.
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Director Darren Aronofsky asked Jared Leto and Marlon Wayans to avoid sex and sugar for a period of 30 days in order to better understand an overwhelming craving.
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During Ellen Burstyn's impassioned monologue about how it feels to be old, cinematographer Matthew Libatique accidentally let the camera drift off-target. When director Darren Aronofsky called "cut" and confronted him about it, he realized the reason Libatique had let the camera drift was because he had been crying during the take and fogged up the camera's eyepiece. This was the take used in the final print.
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In addition to having a camera mounted to her for certain sequences, Ellen Burstyn, spent four hours every morning being fitted with prosthetics, wearing four different necks (both fat and emaciated), two different fat suits (a 40-pound and 20-pound suit), and nine different wigs.
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Jared Leto lost 25 lbs and befriended real heroin junkies from Brooklyn to prepare for his role as Harry Goldfarb.
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The scene where Harry and Marion talk on the phone was shot simultaneously on adjacent parts of the same set through a live phone hookup, so that actual reactions could be used.
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The hallucination where Harry falls involved placing a camera on the end of a bungee cord and testing to make sure it could stop within inches of the ground. (It did.)
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The Tappy Tibbons material was shot in one day, with Christopher McDonald improvising a good deal of his material. At the end, the SAG extras for the audience and the crew all gave him a standing ovation.
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The man peeling the orange (and the orange truck) in the scene where the characters go to receive a new shipment of drugs not only indicates their next destination - Florida - but also serves as a nod to the Godfather films, where the presence of oranges indicated disaster.
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Jennifer Connelly's character's father worked in the garment industry. In reality, Connelly's father also is in the garment industry.
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During one scene in which Ellen Burstyn is hallucinating, her entire apartment is taken apart piece by piece as though it was the set of a television show. Several crewmembers of the mock television show pass Burstyn in her chair, including a man carrying a clip board with the Greek letter/mathematical symbol "Pi" on the back - Darren Aronofsky's first film.
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In the opening scene you can hear the sounds of a string quartet tuning up for a performance in the soundtrack. Just before the title rolls down, you hear a conductor tap on his music stand to ready the quartet for a performance. The people tuning up are "The Kronos Quartet", who played most of the music for the film. The maestro bringing them to attention is Darren Aronofsky, the director.
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The overhead shot of Marion in the bathtub followed by her screaming underwater was an exact replica of a shot in the Japanese animated thriller, Perfect Blue. Darren Aronofsky bought the remake rights to the film just to use that one sequence.
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When Sarah Goldfarb is on the subway and she is telling strangers that she is going to be on TV, a man tells her "You are whacked". That man was Darren Aronofsky's father.
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In the scene that Marion calls Big Tim, there is a shot of his phone number on a piece of paper. It was not the standard "555-" number used in movies. They were able to get away with this because only six digits of the phone number are visible. However if you listen carefully, Tyrone does speak all seven digits. But, after the scene where Harry is with the doctor, Marion turns over the photograph of her and Harry, revealing the full telephone number.
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When Ellen Burstyn first read the script offered by Darren Aronofsky, she was horrified by it and rejected the role. It was not until after she watched a video of Pi Aronofsky's previous film - that she changed her mind and accepted the role.
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The pills Sarah Goldfarb takes in the film are actually Synthroid pills taken for thyroid hormone replacement for people with hypothyroidism, this is also true for the pills Marion, Tyrone and Harry take before the party.
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In an interview with Charlie Rose, Ellen Burstyn stated that in her opinion playing Sara Goldfarb was her best acting achievement.
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To get into the character of Marion, who is a dress designer, Jennifer Connelly started making clothes for herself, and ended up making most of her own wardrobe.
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Neve Campbell was the first choice for the role of Marion Silver, but declined when she found out the role required on camera nudity.
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Spoilers
Tappy Tibbons's regimen consists of "three things, which is all I did to change my life". #1, "no red meat", and #2, "no refined sugar", are repeated throughout the film. #3 can only be glimpsed by freeze-framing a scene with the whiteboard that Tappy is writing on (it can also be accessed (and you can view the entire third section) on the director's cut DVD, by choosing the Chapter Selections; scroll to 21-24 and press up twice before pressing Enter).
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In each character's last scene they turn onto their right side and pull their knees up to their stomach, assuming the fetal position.
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In an easter egg on the director's cut DVD, we learn that the "third thing that drives most people crazy" in Tappy Tibbons' infomercial is "no orgasm".
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