70 Fun Facts About American Beauty

In what year was American Beauty released?

It opened in six theaters that September and won Best Picture the following March.

Who plays Lester Burnham?

The studio floated all three of the others; the director did not want a big star weighing the film down.

Who plays Carolyn Burnham, Lester's status-obsessed wife?

She was offered the part without the studio's consent; Helen Hunt and Holly Hunter were the executives' preferred names.

Which theater director made his feature-film debut with American Beauty?

He found the script in a pile of eight at an agent's house and knew immediately it was the one.

Who wrote the screenplay?

He later created Six Feet Under and True Blood; at the time he was a frustrated sitcom writer.

Who plays Angela, the cheerleader Lester becomes infatuated with?

Kirsten Dunst turned the part down over its content and Sarah Michelle Gellar was tied up with Buffy.

Who plays Jane Burnham?

She was 16, so her parents and child-labor representatives had to sign off on her brief nude scene.

Who plays Ricky Fitts, the camcorder-carrying neighbor?

The director handed him a video camera before shooting and told him to film whatever Ricky would.

Who plays Colonel Fitts, the retired Marine next door?

The writer based the character on his own father, whom he suspected was a closeted gay man.

What dream car does Lester buy?

The argument over the purchase turns, unexpectedly, into the one moment Lester nearly seduces Carolyn.

What recurring image fills Lester's fantasies about Angela?

Most were added digitally in post-production; the real ones had their wires painted out.

What does Ricky call the most beautiful thing he has ever filmed?

The writer had watched exactly that for ten minutes outside the World Trade Center around 1991.

How does Ricky pay for his video equipment?

His catering and waitstaff jobs are only a front, which is why his father misreads the garage scene so badly.

What job does Lester take after quitting his advertising career?

It is at the drive-through window that he catches Carolyn with her lover.

Carolyn has an affair with a rival in which profession?

Buddy Kane, the self-styled "King", ends it the moment he starts worrying about the cost of a divorce.

Who plays Buddy Kane?

He and Allison Janney were both cast after filming had already begun in December 1998.

Who plays Barbara Fitts, Ricky's near-silent mother?

The director gave her a book of Edvard Munch paintings and told her, "Your character is in there somewhere."

Who is implied to have shot Lester?

Carolyn had a gun in her glove box and Jane had joked about it with Ricky, but it is the blood-soaked neighbor who returns home missing a weapon.

What was the film's two-word tagline?

It came from a clipping the set dresser had pinned inside Lester's cubicle.

Which studio made and released American Beauty?

It outbid the other three for the script and bought it outright rather than optioning it.

How many Academy Awards did American Beauty win?

Picture, Director, Actor, Original Screenplay and Cinematography, from eight nominations.

Who won the Best Cinematography Oscar for the film?

He shot the entire film at the same wide T-stop and used a soft diffusion filter he later regretted.

Who composed the percussion-heavy score?

He tapped metal mixing bowls and used a detuned mandolin for the quirkier cues, and the score album won a Grammy.

Which online retailer built the film's official website, its first ever section devoted to a movie?

The site carried a photo gallery, filmographies and exclusive interviews with the two leads.

Roughly what did American Beauty cost to make?

The studio had originally planned on $6-8 million; the leads and the cinematographer all worked for well under their usual rates.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide?

That made it the ninth highest-grossing film of 1999 on a $15 million budget.

Before the film, the screenwriter had spent frustrating years writing for which two sitcoms?

He channeled his anger at network notes on those shows, and on his own sitcom Oh, Grow Up, into the script.

The media circus around which 1992 trial helped inspire the story?

A comic book about the scandal convinced the writer there was a sadder, truer story underneath the tabloid one.

In what form did the writer first attempt the story in the early 1990s?

He got about 40 pages in before deciding the material was too visual and too personal for the stage.

Where did the writer watch a floating bag for ten minutes, the encounter behind Ricky's favorite footage?

He described the moment as provoking an "unexpected emotional response".

Which stage musical had the director just revived in New York, impressing Steven Spielberg?

He co-directed that revival with Rob Marshall, who went on to direct the film of Chicago.

The director was paid the Directors Guild minimum to make the film. How much was that?

After tax and his agent's cut he said he cleared about $38,000.

How much did the studio pay to buy the script outright in April 1998?

Not optioning it was unusual; the writer had assumed it would only be a calling card.

Which comedian was offered the role of Lester and turned it down?

Bruce Willis, Kevin Costner and John Travolta were the studio's other suggestions.

Kirsten Dunst turned down the role of Angela to star in which 1999 film instead?

She objected to the character and to Lester's behavior toward her.

The lead actor loosely based Lester's early "schlubby" bearing on which older star?

Because scenes were shot out of order, he changed his posture from take to take to show Lester's body improving.

Director and star studied which actor's performance in The Apartment (1960) as a model for Lester?

They wanted the way he moved in that office: an ordinary man who was nonetheless special.

Lester's narration from beyond the grave is a throwback to which 1950 film?

The director felt the device captured the loneliness of both Lester and the film.

Which star recommended the film's eventual cinematographer to the director?

He had executive-produced Without Limits and liked the veteran's work on it; the director had assumed the man was too old and too experienced to want the job.

Which song does Carolyn sing along to in her car, in a Bobby Darin recording?

He gave it to her to get into Carolyn's head; she liked it so much she persuaded him to put it in the film.

Who covers Neil Young's 'Don't Let It Bring You Down' during Angela's seduction of Lester?

The song's tone fits at first, then clashes deliberately as the seduction stops.

Elliott Smith's contribution to the soundtrack is a cover of which Beatles song?

It comes from Abbey Road and plays over the closing stretch of the film.

The Burnham and Fitts houses were built on which studio's backlot?

The crew rebuilt them with false rooms so the sightlines between Ricky's window, Jane's window and Lester's garage would work.

The aerial shots that open and close the film were filmed over which city?

The town itself is never named; the production designer likened it to Evanston, Illinois, but called it "Anywhere, USA".

What happened in the deleted bookend scenes from the original edit?

The director cut them in the last week of editing, saying they turned the film into an episode of NYPD Blue.

The film's first cut opened with a dream in which Lester does what?

Two days of bluescreen work were dropped for being too whimsical, "like a Coen brothers movie".

Roughly how many euphemisms for masturbation did the lead actor improvise for the bedroom scene?

Bening kept breaking, so the scene had to be shot ten times.

Which cinematographer turned the film down, disliking the script?

He was the director's first choice; the veteran who eventually took the job went on to win the Oscar for it.

The studio first offered the film to which two established directors, both of whom declined?

The producers met about twenty directors; the writer preferred someone lesser-known so the studio would not get nervous about the content.

MTV withdrew a 2000 Best Kiss nomination for Lester and Angela after what happened?

The studio said it did not want to glorify a kiss between a 42-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl.

Which festival's audience-voted People's Choice Award did the film win in September 1999?

The festival's director called it "the buzz of the festival, the film most talked-about".

Which 1984 film had shown the director that contemporary America could be shot as a mythic landscape?

He saw the same theme in the script, along with parallels to his own childhood.

Which sitcom did the writer create while developing the script, channeling his frustration with network notes?

He had to get his TV producers' permission to take a year off to stay close to the film.

Which rental chain stocked far fewer copies than planned after failing to agree a deal with the studio?

Some stores displayed only 60 copies or none at all, and staff had to read customers a statement explaining why.

How many Academy Award nominations did the film receive?

Its closest rivals, The Cider House Rules and The Insider, had seven each.

Where did the film have its world premiere in September 1999?

It went to Toronto three days later and then toured American university campuses with the cast.

It was the second-best-reviewed American film of 1999. Which film was first?

Variety still reported that no other 1999 movie had benefited from "such universal raves".

On its wide-release weekend the film placed third at the box office, behind which two films?

It grossed about $8.2 million from 706 theaters that weekend, then found its audience over months.

Which two actresses did DreamWorks propose for Carolyn before Mendes offered the role to Annette Bening?

Mendes offered Bening the part without the studio's consent; executives had wanted Bruce Willis or John Travolta for Lester.

Which TV star turned down the role of Angela because of scheduling conflicts with her own series?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer kept her busy; Kirsten Dunst had also declined the part over its sexual content.

Which painter's work did Mendes give Allison Janney to help her find the character of Barbara Fitts?

He told her 'your character is in there somewhere', then cut most of Barbara's dialogue in favour of shared silences.

Which 2009 documentary followed Wes Bentley and other young actors before and after he won the role of Ricky?

Mendes gave Bentley a video camera and told him to film whatever Ricky would.

What is the shared first name of the film's happily boring gay neighbours, played by Scott Bakula and Sam Robards?

Ball wrote them after thinking 'I can't wait for the time when a gay couple can be just as boring' as a matching-outfit straight couple.

On which part of the Warner backlot were the adjacent Burnham and Fitts houses built?

False rooms were added to create sightlines between Ricky's and Jane's windows and from Ricky's room into Lester's garage.

How many takes did the plastic-bag footage require, with Mendes finally shooting the last one himself?

He moved it in front of a brick wall and scattered leaves so the wall would give the bag's outline definition.

Where in Torrance, California, were the film's classroom and gym scenes shot?

Several extras in the gym crowd were students there; production designer Naomi Shohan likened the fictional town to Evanston, Illinois.

How many BAFTAs did American Beauty win at the 2000 ceremony?

They included Best Film, Best Actor and Best Actress for Annette Bening, who lost the Oscar to Hilary Swank.

Which Miramax film was American Beauty's closest rival for the Best Picture Oscar?

DreamWorks bought 38% more advertising space in Variety than Miramax after losing the previous year with Saving Private Ryan.

In 2005 which magazine listed American Beauty among the 20 'most overrated movies of all time'?

Mendes conceded in 2008 that the film had been 'a little overpraised at the time'.

Which DreamWorks animated film of 2005 spoofed American Beauty?

Family Guy, Not Another Teen Movie and The Amazing World of Gumball have also parodied it.