True Detective (2014–2019)
Trivia
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Spoilers (5)
To prepare, Matthew McConaughey created a four hundred fifty-page analysis, the "Four Stages of Rustin Cohle", to study his character's evolution over the course of the story.
Episodes averaged 11.2 million viewers, making it the most watched first season of an HBO original series since Band of Brothers (2001).
According to Matthew McConaughey, the entirety of Rust Cohle's interview scenes were shot in one day; this means about twenty-eight pages of a four hundred fifty page season one script were filmed over the course of an eighteen hour work day.
Season one was originally planned as an HBO original mini-series, but the network was so impressed, they decided to turn it into an anthology television show.
In the first season, Matthew McConaughey plays an Atheist, while Woody Harrelson plays a Christian. In reality, their world views are reversed, with McConaughey being a Christian and Harrelson being an Atheist.
Series creator Nic Pizzolatto wrote the first season by himself, without any input from a writing staff (which is unusual for a major American television series). For the second season, he hired author Scott Lasser to help break stories.
Christian Bale and Jessica Chastain were pursued for lead roles in the second season of the show, but both passed on the project due to the significant time commitment the show would've required.
It is one of the highest rated television shows of all time, and one of the few shows that generated more than ten million viewers, despite it not being for family audiences.
According to Nic Pizzolatto, all of the nude scenes in season one were pay cable mandated and that he would have been happy with no nudity.
In real life, Woody and Matthew are friends. Before their fight scene, they danced in demonstration of their friendship.
David Cronenberg was offered the opportunity to direct the first episode of the second season, but he declined because he felt the script was poor.
Creator and Writer Nic Pizzolatto acknowledged the strong influence of Thomas Ligotti's and Emil Cioran's philosophical writings on the series: "I'd already been reading E.M. Cioran for years and consider him one of my all-time favorite and, oddly, most nourishing writers. As an aphorist, Cioran has no rivals other than perhaps Nietzsche, and many of his philosophies are echoed by Ligotti".
The music playing underneath the title sequence in season two is the song "Nevermind" by Leonard Cohen. For each episode, the edit of the song is slightly different, highlighting various sections of the song and its lyrics that may or may not be relevant to that particular episode. One of the episodes' titles, for example, ends with the words "I live among you, well disguised." This is different to season one, where the title music is edited the same way for all episodes.
One of creator, showrunner, and writer Nic Pizzolatto's initial remarks about the second season was that it was set around the "secret occult history of Los Angeles' transport system". He later admitted this was a joke in response to the frustration of constantly being asked the question "what is season two about?" so often and so early in the writing process. He found it funny that the quote actually gained traction, so he did nothing to debunk it.
Over the course of the first season, Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) smoked forty-nine cigarettes and drank eight beers on camera.
Several scenes of the second season had to be re-shot due to the cast not being able to understand Colin Farrell during some of his drunk scenes. Vince Vaughn even cracked jokes about how it sounded like he was growling at a wall.
The title credits of the fourth season of Key and Peele (2012) directly spoof the season one title credits of this show. Also, in every episode before each skit, Key and Peele are seen driving through the desert having philosophical (albeit humorous) conversations, in another direct spoof of the long and frequent scenes of driving and conversations in season one of this show.
Colin Farrell gained twenty pounds (nine kilograms) for his character Ray Velcoro.
Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are natives of Texas.
Colin Farrell detested the mustache required for his role. He disliked it so much that, when producers told him he no longer needed it, he shaved it off then and there in his trailer bathroom rather than waiting until he got home.
When Alexandra Daddario heard President Obama had ordered a copy of the show's first season, which features a scene of her completely nude, she tweeted, "The president has seen my boobs!"
Wayne Hays, was originally written to be white, while Roland West was written to be black. It was Mahershala Ali who suggested Nic Pizzolatto swap their races.
In an interview, Alexandra Daddario explained why she decided to do her first nude scene with this series: "It was the first time I was nude for anything, so I was definitely unnerved by that. But I really wanted to be part of the show, and I understood why the nudity and all of that was required of the character. The character is really different from anything that I've done before. The nudity was just part of that." She then added, "I tried not to think about it too much before shooting the more intimate scenes and just sort of did it." She said in an interview years later that this experience made her feel comfortable enough to perform fully nude again in 2020 for her starring role in the drama Lost Girls & Love Hotels.
Jessica Biel and Malin Akerman were among the actresses also considered for the role of Detective Ani Bezzerides.
In season three, Friday, November 7, 1980, is correctly identified as the night Steve McQueen died. The only incorrect detail is that it wasn't a full moon - it was actually in a new moon phase.
Rosario Dawson, Elisabeth Moss, Brit Marling, Oona Chaplin, and Jaime Alexander were considered for the role of Detective Ani Bezzerides. Kelly Reilly and Abigail Spencer auditioned to play Ani before being cast as Jordan Semyon and Gina Brune, respectively.
Although the second season is set in California, and the characters that Colin Farrell, Rachel McAdams, and Taylor Kitsch play are Americans, none of the actors are American. Colin Farrell is Irish. Rachel McAdams and Taylor Kitsch are Canadians.
Rust Cohle says to the interviewers that he wants "...Old Milwaukee or Lone Star, nothing snooty". The beer he eventually receives is Lone Star. This isn't only a popular beer in Texas, but also a reference to another Matthew McConaughey project, Lone Star (1996).
In the first season, the Sheriff's last name is Tate. Heck Tate is the Sheriff in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as its film adaptation.
Matthew McConaughey and Alexandra Daddario appeared in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre film franchise. Matthew played in The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1995) and Alexandra in Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013).
Very rarely will you see any of the detectives exhale while smoking. In season 1, although Cohle smokes frequently, there are very few scenes showing him exhale smoke.
Rachel McAdams and Kelly Reilly appeared in Sherlock Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011).
Season two is set in the fictional city of Vinci, which is really meant to be Vernon. Vince Vaughn's father and son are both named Vernon.
In season two, Taylor Kitsch played a military veteran named Paul Woodrugh. Kitsch previously played a Navy S.E.A.L. in Lone Survivor (2013) and a former S.E.A.L. in Savages (2012).
When actress Raeden Greer read director Cary Fukunaga's interview with The Hollywood Reporter where he spoke of his efforts to bring the latest James Bond movie No Time to Die (2021) into a post-#MeToo world and ensure the film's "female characters [are] more than just contrivances," she quickly outed him as a hypocrite to the site The Daily Beast. She said a contrivance is exactly how Fukunaga treated her when he fired her from True Derective (2014) for refusing to expose her breasts. She had a small speaking role in a season one episode he directed and he tried to pressure her into going topless. She refused saying she was told the role wouldn't involve nudity. This led to a tense 10-minute standoff with the director, who then fired her and gave her role to Amber Carollo, an extra on set with no acting experience who agreed to strip nude. Greer said she was humiliated and outraged that what could have been a big career break for her ended up being a nightmare.
Woody Harrelson and Lili Simmons share the same birthday.
The first two episodes were rewritten after the choice of the players and the rest of the screenplay was adapted to them.
Spoilers
Creator Nic Pizzolatto contemplated another ending for season one, in which Marty and Rust didn't leave the maze and were never heard from again, but in the end, he decided to give them a happy ending.
Nic Pizzolatto revealed that the main reason why Cohle drinks a lot while being questioned by Gilbough and Papania is because he knows that him being drunk would legally invalidate his interview.
Season one is considered a part of the Cthulu Mythos, a literary subgenre that comes from the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The original description of Errol Childress, the "green eared spaghetti monster", is a reference to Lovecraft's monster, Cthulu. There are also multiple references to the Robert W. Chambers collection of short stories, The King in Yellow. These include Carcosa, The Yellow King, and black stars. Much like creator Nic Pizzolatto, Lovecraft was heavily influenced by The King in Yellow.
In season two, the dream sequence at the beginning of episode three foreshadows Detective Ray Velcoro's death at the end of the season.
