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Spoilers (1)
Writer/director Peter Hedges gave Derek Luke an audition without knowing anything about Antwone Fisher. After seeing the audition, Hedges not only cast Luke but described the experience as the best audition since Leonardo DiCaprio tried out for What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
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Is the first original screenplay by writer/director Peter Hedges. All his others have been adaptations.
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Although the film is dedicated to Peter Hedges' mother, who died of cancer, the only true aspect he incorporated is the line where Joy talks about the fictional singer "Smack Daddy". The line is almost word for word what Peter's mother told him while in the hospital, the only exception being that she was talking about Barry White.
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One of the inspirations for the movie came from a story Peter Hedges had heard about a group of young adults who had "borrowed" an apartment so they could celebrate their first Thanksgiving in Manhattan together. The oven in the apartment did not work so they had to go door to door in the building, trying to find an oven in which to cook their turkey.
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Shot in just 16 days on a budget of $100,000. Costs were kept this low by the film company InDigEnt cutting a deal with the unions. This meant that Peter Hedges was paid $10 to direct the film, and another $10 to write it. All the actors worked for $248 a day.
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Spoilers
When April is crying on the bed after her family has abandoned her she originally said, "I knew this would happen," before she asks what they are going to do with all the food. It was decided to remove this line as the director felt that it made her look like she was thinking of herself rather than others, going against everything we had seen of her up until that point. The dubbed over the line with additional crying sounds.
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