50 Fun Facts About Birdman Movie

Who directed Birdman?

He won Best Director again the following year for The Revenant.

Who plays Riggan Thomson?

The role revived his career and earned him an Oscar nomination and his first Golden Globe.

What is the film's parenthetical subtitle?

The last option is the Carver story Riggan is adapting.

Which author's short story is Riggan adapting for Broadway?

Carver's widow Tess Gallagher loved the script and said he would be laughing about it.

In which years did Riggan star in the Birdman superhero trilogy?

The 1992 date is one of several nods to Keaton's Batman films.

Who plays Mike Shiner, the volatile method actor?

Another actor was originally set for the role but was switched out over scheduling.

How does Mike come to join the play?

The accident happens the day before the first preview.

Who plays Sam, Riggan's daughter and assistant?

She's a recovering addict who sets up his Twitter account.

Who plays Jake, Riggan's lawyer and producer?

Iñárritu called casting him 'a bet' that paid off because he was also sensitive.

Why does Mike break character during the first preview?

He also complains the prop gun doesn't look natural.

What triggers the backstage brawl between the two lead actors?

Jake persuades Riggan to carry on with the play.

How does Riggan end up walking through Times Square in his underwear?

He re-enters through the audience to finish the scene, and the footage goes viral.

Who plays the theatre critic Tabitha Dickinson?

She promises to 'kill' the play without seeing it.

What does Riggan confess to his ex-wife Sylvia on opening night?

He also tells her about the Birdman voice, which she ignores.

What injury does Riggan actually suffer from the real gun on stage?

He wakes in hospital with a surgically reconstructed nose.

How does Tabitha respond to the play after the shooting?

Sam's Twitter account for him gains followers by the second.

What does Sam do at the very end when she finds the hospital room empty?

She hears a bird's cry first.

How is nearly all of the film presented?

Iñárritu's reasoning: 'we live our lives with no editing'.

Who shot the film?

He initially thought it had every element of a movie he didn't want to make: comedy, studio work and long takes.

How did the four screenwriters mostly collaborate?

Iñárritu was in LA, Giacobone and Bo in Buenos Aires, Dinelaris in New York.

Which star was to appear in the film's abandoned original ending?

He would have been in Riggan's dressing room with a Pirates of the Caribbean poster asking 'What are we doing here, mate?'

What was the first thing Keaton asked Iñárritu about the role?

The film is full of references to Tim Burton's Batman films regardless.

What photo did Iñárritu attach to the script he gave the cast?

His message: 'We are doing that'.

Which actor was originally set to play Mike Shiner?

The financiers switched him for Norton because of scheduling conflicts.

What was the film's budget?

Fox Searchlight and New Regency, fresh from 12 Years a Slave, financed it together.

Which Broadway house was used for the stage scenes?

Backstage areas were built at Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens.

Where did Iñárritu and Lubezki build a proxy stage to test whether the film was possible?

Canvas and C-stands stood in for walls, with tape marking out areas.

Which lens was used for most of the film?

A 21mm was tried first but didn't give Iñárritu the intimacy he wanted.

How many times was the live Times Square sequence shot?

They didn't want to attract the attention of tourists.

Which mishap by the actress playing Sam ruined a six-minute take?

She told the story on Jimmy Fallon.

The original score consists entirely of what?

It's offset by classical pieces including Mahler and Tchaikovsky.

Why was the drum score ruled ineligible for the Oscar for scoring?

Sánchez and Iñárritu appealed to the music branch chair Charles Fox but lost.

Which festival opened with Birdman in 2014?

It shared opening-night honours with a Mohsen Makhmalbaf film.

How many Oscars did Birdman win?

Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and Cinematography, from nine nominations.

Which film tied Birdman for most nominations and wins that year?

Boyhood had been the favourite for much of awards season.

Who hosted the 2015 Oscars?

It was his first and only time hosting.

Birdman was the first Best Picture winner without an editing nomination since which film?

Ironic, given how much invisible editing stitches the 'single take' together.

Iñárritu's Best Director win made him the second consecutive Mexican winner after whom?

Cuarón had won the year before for a film also shot by Lubezki.

Lubezki's cinematography Oscar for Birdman was his second in a row; what was the first?

He then made it three with The Revenant.

Which two editors, veterans of 21 Grams and Babel, stitched the takes together?

Crise was on set every day because there'd be no room to fix scenes later.

In which Golden Globe category did Michael Keaton win his first-ever Globe for Birdman?

The film also took the Globe for Best Screenplay, and its cast won Outstanding Cast in a Motion Picture at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Which Greek mythological figure did the New York Times' Manohla Dargis compare Riggan to?

The comparison fits a man who keeps imagining himself flying. The Wall Street Journal instead likened him to Don Quixote, a man convinced he is a knight.

Which jazz drummer composed Birdman's percussion-only original score?

Iñárritu rang his friend in January 2013. It was his first film job, and he initially wrote rhythmic themes for each character before the director asked for something looser.

Who plays Laura, Riggan's girlfriend and co-star in the play?

She met Iñárritu on a street corner for a cup of tea and told him she would crawl across hot coals to work with him. He called Laura 'a very wacky, quirky role'.

Roughly how much did Birdman gross worldwide?

About $42 million of that came from North America. Its limited opening weekend averaged over $106,000 per screen, one of the highest figures ever for a live-action film.

Birdman's limited US opening in October 2014 played in how many theatres?

They were split between New York and Los Angeles and took $424,397 between them. The film went nationwide to 857 theatres a month later.

Which make of digital camera was used throughout the shoot?

A tiny Alexa M handled the handheld work, sometimes two inches from Keaton's face, while an Alexa XT rode the Steadicam. Neither used a matte box so the light could reach the actors' faces.

According to its VFX supervisor, visual effects touched what share of Birdman's frames?

Montreal's Rodeo FX spent four months on the film, much of it invisibly stitching takes together and erasing the crew's reflections from the many mirrors on set.

In which Manhattan bar were the film's bar scenes shot?

It sits on 47th Street, a block from the St. James Theatre. The flying action sequence was staged on 43rd Street.

Critic Richard Kolker compared Birdman to Hitchcock's Rope and which 2002 single-shot film?

Alexander Sokurov's film glides through the Hermitage in one unbroken take, whereas Rope and Birdman hide their edits.