50 Fun Facts About Green Book

Who directed Green Book?

He's one half of the Farrelly brothers, makers of Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary.

Who plays Tony Lip?

He put on a lot of weight for the role and earned a Best Actor nomination.

Who plays Don Shirley?

It gave him his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar in three years, after Moonlight.

What is Tony's job when the film opens?

The club is closed for renovations, so he needs work.

How long is Don's concert tour?

They plan to be back in New York on Christmas Eve.

What was The Negro Motorist Green Book?

Postal worker Victor Hugo Green published it from 1936 to 1966.

Who gives Tony his copy of the Green Book?

It lists motels, restaurants and filling stations that would serve Black travellers.

In which city do white men beat Don in a bar before Tony rescues him?

Tony then orders him not to go out without him for the rest of the tour.

What does Don help Tony write?

They deeply move Dolores back in the Bronx.

Who plays Dolores, Tony's wife?

Sebastian Maniscalco plays her brother Johnny.

How does Tony get Don out of trouble after the YMCA shower incident?

Don had been found in a homosexual encounter with a white man.

Whom does Don phone from a Mississippi jail?

The pressure from Washington gets them released.

Why are they pulled over in the Mississippi sundown town?

Tony punches an officer after being insulted, landing them both in jail.

Where does Don's final concert of the tour take place?

He's refused entry to the whites-only dining room.

Where do Tony and Don go instead of playing the final concert?

Don joins the band on piano.

Which Chopin piece does Don play at the blues club?

It's Étude Op. 25, No. 11, and was left off the soundtrack album.

Why does the officer pull them over in the blizzard on the way home?

He helps fix it and wishes them a safe trip; co-writer Brian Currie plays him.

How does the film end?

He declines the invitation, sits alone at home, then changes his mind.

Who co-wrote the screenplay from his father's stories?

He also appears in the film as Augie, the Mafioso who offers Tony work.

Who plays Don's cellist Oleg?

The real cellist, Jüri Täht, was Estonian and dismayed to be turned into a Russian.

How much weight did Mortensen have to gain?

He began negotiations to star in May 2017.

Who taught Ali basic piano and doubled his hands in close-ups?

Bowers also wrote the film's original score.

Where was the film shot?

Production began the week the lead cast was announced in November 2017.

Which rock star recommended obscure 1950s and 60s songs for the soundtrack over dinner?

He was dating a friend of Farrelly's wife and played tracks on YouTube.

Which filmmaker reportedly watched the film five times in two weeks and got it to Universal?

He called it his favourite buddy movie since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Which studio originally had the project and passed?

Participant Media financed the $23 million budget instead.

Which festival gave the film its premiere and People's Choice Award?

It was also the surprise film at the BFI London Film Festival.

How many Oscars did Green Book win?

Best Picture, Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor, from five nominations.

Green Book was the fifth Best Picture winner without a Best Director nod. Which was the fourth?

The others were Wings, Grand Hotel and Driving Miss Daisy.

What was unusual about the 2019 Oscar ceremony?

Kevin Hart had stepped down over old tweets; it was the first hostless show since 1989.

Which film won the most Oscars that night, with four?

Roma and The Favourite had tied for most nominations with ten.

Which director tried to walk out of the theatre when Green Book won?

He said 'the ref made a bad call' and compared it to Driving Miss Daisy beating Do the Right Thing.

Which country became the film's biggest overseas market?

It became the second highest-grossing Best Picture winner there, behind Titanic.

What CinemaScore grade did audiences give the film?

Critics were cooler: 77% on Rotten Tomatoes.

What did Shirley's brother Maurice say about Tony?

But in the 2010 documentary Lost Bohemia, Shirley said 'I trusted him implicitly'.

Where was the real Don Shirley born?

His label falsely advertised him as Jamaican-born; his parents were Jamaican immigrants.

At what age did Shirley start playing the organ?

He'd started piano at two.

The real Tony Lip later became an actor best known for which TV role?

He also played mobster Philip Giaccone in Donnie Brasco.

The real Tony Lip and Don Shirley died how far apart in 2013?

The end titles note they stayed friends until then.

What did the real Shirley do at Carnegie Hall in 1955?

Arthur Fiedler had invited him to play with the Boston Pops the year before.

Tony Lip's film debut was a small role in which 1972 classic?

He met Francis Ford Coppola and casting director Louis DiGiaimo while working the door at the Copacabana, which got him into the Corleone saga.

After the Best Picture win, the BlacKkKlansman director likened Green Book to which 1989 winner?

He was still smarting that the chauffeur drama had triumphed the year his own Do the Right Thing was overlooked, saying 'the ref made a bad call'.

The filmmaker who got Green Book to Universal called it his favourite buddy movie since what?

He reportedly watched it five times in two weeks before taking it to DreamWorks, whose domestic deal sits with Universal.

Which company financed Green Book's $23 million budget?

Its distribution deal with the studio that had already passed on the project worried Farrelly, which is why he went looking for another route to release.

Who appears on screen as the driver's brother Rudy, the one who says 'we're an arty family'?

The real Rudy plays his own father, Grandpa Nicola, in a cast full of Vallelongas, while Nick plays the mobster Augie who offers Tony work.

The real Don Shirley was a 1949 finalist for which prestigious scholarship?

Had he won, he said he would have studied 'oriental languages' at Oxford rather than music.

Which co-writer plays the Maryland State Trooper who helps in the snowstorm?

The kindly trooper is the film's mirror image of the Mississippi stop, and the man playing him shares the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

Shirley's real cellist was Estonian; what nationality is his fictionalised counterpart Oleg?

Jüri Täht was dismayed by the change, since his family had fled the USSR, and was surprised to find a stage of his life in a movie at all.

Tony Lip co-wrote which 2005 book?

The cookbook-memoir collected recipes and stories from Italian-American actors, fitting for a man whose nickname came from talking people round.

Which 1961 Don Shirley single reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100?

It stayed on the chart for 14 weeks, and his first album as a leader had earlier reached No. 14 on Billboard's pop albums chart in 1955.