10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Making Of True Romance – Screen Rant

Tony Scott's True Romance is one of the most influential crime movies of the 1990s. Written by Quentin Tarantino, the film about star-crossed lovers Clarence (Christian Slater) and Alabama (Patricia Arquette) who venture on a wild cross-country road trip to sell a stolen suitcase full of cocaine, helped to redefine the genre entering the new millennium. The film also boosted Tarantino's career as the preeminent Hollywood auteur of his generation.

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But not all went smoothly during the making of True Romance. The script was trimmed, the original director was replaced, certain actors became ill onset, etc.

Tarantino reportedly sold his screenplay for True Romance for $50,000, the bare minimum allowed under WGA guidelines. However, the script began as a buddy-crime-film called The Open Road, written by Roger Avary. Upon getting stuck at the 50-page mark, Avary asked his friend Tarantino to give the script a try.

Tarantino proceeded to write 500 pages by hand, which included story elements used in True Romance, Pulp Fiction, and Natural Born Killers. The first act of True Romance also borrows heavily from Tarantino's 1987 comedy My Best Friend's Birthday.

Before Tony Scott was officially hired by Warner Bros. to direct True Romance, B-horror movie director William Lustig (Maniac, Maniac Cop) was attached to helm.

Tarantino rejected Lustig as a potential director, voicing his lack of faith that Lustig could do what Jonathan Demme did by starting in low-budget B-movies before ascending to the A-list. Furthermore, producers dismissed Lustig as a director when he demanded nearly all of the interior scenes in the screenplay be moved outdoors.

Fresh off his title performance in Bram Stoker's Dracula the year prior, Gary Oldman opted to reuse his wigmaker and costume designer from that film for his indelible character of Drexl Spivey in True Romance.

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Moreover, Drexl dons one of the fake eyes Oldman wore as Dracula as well. While on set, Oldman's 70-year-old mother was present every day of filming to help shape her son's performance. In intervening years, Oldman has called Drexl Spivey and Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK as the two favorite characters of his career.

Although his screen time as Floyd is limited, Brad Pitt delivers one of the most memorable performances in True Romance. Nearly all of his lines of dialog were improvised onset!

In addition, the Rastafarian hat Floyd wears during the kitchen sequence was found on the ground by Pitt at the Venice Beach Boardwalk. As for the iconic scene where Floyd is visited by the mafiosos, the music supervisor inserted a temp-track for Soundgarden's "Outshined." The song was such a hit in test screenings that a large portion of the budget went to purchasing rights for the song to be used in the final cut.

One major character in the film that is spoken of but never seen is Blue Lou Boyle, a criminal associate of Vincent Coccotti (Christopher Walken). In the original draft of the script, Boyle had several speaking lines that were ultimately cut for time and budgetary reasons.

Tarantino wanted Robert Forster to play Blue Lou Boyle, but Robert De Niro was ultimately attached to play the role. When the part was substantially shortened, De Niro bowed out. Tarantino would work with both De Niro and Forster in Jackie Brown four years later.

Prior to playing Tony Soprano, James Gandolfini played a terrifying gangster in True Romance. But he almost never got the role in the first place.

During the initial casting phase, Tom Sizemore was originally set to play Virgil, the ruthless gangster who confiscates the stolen cocaine from Clarence and Alabama. When Sizemore opted to play FBI Agent Cody Nicholson instead, he suggested Tony Scott cast Gandolfini as Virgil. The iconic fight scene between Alabama and Virgil took five days to film.

In Tarantino's original script, the rollercoaster scene was supposed to take place at a zoo. Tony Scott changed the setting to a theme-park to inject the film with an adrenaline rush.

In the scene, Clarence discusses a drug deal on a rollercoaster with Elliot (Bronson Pinchot), Alabama, and Dick (Michael Rappaport). Unbeknownst to anyone on set, Rappaport was prone to extreme motion sickness while riding rollercoasters. The first day of shooting made Rappaport uneasy, while accommodations were made on the second day to alleviate his stress. In the final edit, shots from both days play back and forth to show Dick fearful in one moment and docile in the next.

Tarantino has declared the "Sicilian Speech" in True Romance among his proudest feats as a writer. According to Dennis Hopper, only two words in the entire exchange between him and Christopher Walken were improvised. Eggplant and cantaloupe.

RELATED: Christopher Walken's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

Tarantino drew inspiration for the scene from real life. After overhearing a similar sentiment voiced by a black man living in his house, Tarantino fondly remembered the dialog when it came time to pen True Romance.

During the infamous "Sicilian Speech" showdown between Vincent Coccotti and Clifford Worley, actor Dennis Hopper had severe reservations about the prop-gun onset being too close to his ear upon firing. Hopper was afraid his ear would be burned by the hot gun barrel.

Attempting to allay Hopper's fears, Tony Scott grabbed the gun, pointed it to his own forehead, and deemed it was 100% safe. Scott fired a charge and part of the barrel extended into his forehead. The director fell to the floor as his forehead began to bleed.

In the original ending of Tarantino's script, Clarence Worley did not survive the gunshot wound to the eyeball during the film's finale. The idea was to leave Alabama as a widow who then turns to a life of crime with Reservoir Dogs's Mr. White (Harvey Keitel).

This is confirmed in a flashback scene in Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, in which Mr. White refers to Alabama as a "good little thief." In addition, the little boy scene in the final shots of True Romance is played by Patricia Arquette's son, Enzo.

NEXT: Patricia Arquette's 10 Best Movies, According To Rotten Tomatoes

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10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Making Of True Romance - Screen Rant

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero