50 Fun Facts About Million Dollar Baby

Who directed Million Dollar Baby?

He also co-produced, starred in and composed the score for it.

Who plays Maggie Fitzgerald?

It won her a second Best Actress Oscar, five years after Boys Don't Cry.

Who plays Eddie 'Scrap-Iron' Dupris?

It finally won him an Oscar, for Best Supporting Actor, after three earlier nominations.

What is the name of Frankie Dunn's gym?

It's a rundown boxing gym in Los Angeles.

What job does Maggie have when she first walks into the gym?

She has come to Los Angeles from the Ozarks.

Why does Frankie initially turn Maggie away?

Scrap lets her train at the gym anyway.

Which fighter leaves Frankie for rival manager Mickey Mack?

He grew impatient with Frankie turning down title-fight offers, which is what opens the door for Maggie.

What Gaelic nickname is embroidered on Maggie's robe?

Frankie refuses to tell her what it means until the very end.

What does Frankie finally say the nickname means?

The phrase comes from a chuisle mo chroí, 'O pulse of my heart'.

What does Maggie buy her mother with her winnings?

Her mother complains it will cost her her welfare checks.

Where does Maggie's $1 million title fight take place?

It's for the WBA women's welterweight title.

What is the ring name of the champion Maggie fights for the title?

Billie Osterman is a German ex-prostitute with a reputation as a dirty fighter.

Which real Dutch boxer and kickboxer plays Billie Osterman?

The press once dubbed her 'The Most Dangerous Woman in the World'.

How is Maggie paralysed?

She breaks her neck and is left a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic.

What do Maggie's family do before visiting her in hospital?

They arrive with a lawyer and only care about getting her assets signed over.

How does Maggie try to end her own life in hospital?

Frankie has just refused her request to help her die.

What does Frankie inject to end Maggie's life?

Scrap watches from the shadows as he does it.

The film's narration turns out to be a letter from Scrap to whom?

He wants her to know her estranged father's true character.

What is the priest Frankie pesters called?

He warns Frankie he will never find himself again if he helps Maggie die.

Which future Marvel star plays boxer Shawrelle Berry?

Michael Peña plays his best friend Omar.

Who plays 'Danger' Barch, the would-be boxer?

Mike Colter, later Luke Cage, plays Big Willie.

Who plays Maggie's selfish mother Earline?

Riki Lindhome plays the welfare-cheating sister Mardell.

Who wrote the screenplay?

He wrote it on spec after being fired from Family Law and won Best Picture again the next year with Crash.

The film is adapted from which book?

Some DVD editions came with a paperback copy of the book.

F.X. Toole was the pen name of a boxing cutman with what real name?

He died of a heart attack in 2002, before the film was made.

The title phrase was originally used as an insult by which boxer?

Ali was the underdog at the time of the pre-fight publicity.

How long did Haggis's spec script take to sell?

Even Warner Bros., Eastwood's longtime home, balked at the $30 million budget.

Which company put up half the budget after Warner Bros. refused to fund it all?

Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg also took foreign distribution.

Roughly how many days did Eastwood take to shoot the film?

It was shot in June and July 2004 in Los Angeles and on Warner Bros. sets.

How much muscle did Swank gain for the role?

She trained nearly five hours a day with Grant L. Roberts, who also appears as Billie's cutman.

What did Swank hide from Eastwood during training?

She thought telling him would be out of character for Maggie.

Which member of Eastwood's family has a cameo as a girl waving at a gas station?

Eastwood also composed the film's score himself.

How many Oscars did the film win?

Best Picture, Director, Actress and Supporting Actor, from seven nominations.

At 74, Eastwood set what Oscar record?

He lost Best Actor to Jamie Foxx for Ray.

Which film led that year's nominations with eleven?

Scorsese's film won five awards but lost Best Picture and Best Director.

Who hosted the 2005 Oscar ceremony?

It was his first time hosting; producer Gil Cates wanted a younger face.

Hilary Swank joined Sally Field, Luise Rainer and whom as actresses who won Best Actress on both their nominations?

She called herself 'just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream'.

Which group protested the film's ending in early 2005?

The Disability Rights Education Fund said it implied disabled lives were not worth living.

Which critic called the film 'a masterpiece, pure and simple' and named it the best of 2004?

Sarris, by contrast, said no movie in his memory had depressed him more.

The film holds what home-video distinction among Best Picture winners?

It came out on HD DVD in 2006, before Blu-ray.

Maggie Fitzgerald comes from which American region?

Her family back home spends the film on welfare, and her mother complains that a gift house would endanger the checks.

Which actor, later Marvel's Luke Cage, plays the prize prospect who defects to Mickey Mack?

The character has been trained by Frankie for years but loses patience when Frankie keeps rejecting offers for a title bout.

Maggie's relatives finally arrive at the hospital accompanied by whom?

Their only concern is getting her assets signed over; she throws them out and threatens to report their welfare fraud.

Paul Haggis wrote the script on spec after being fired from which TV series?

Even with Eastwood attached, several studios passed and the project sat in development hell for years.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide?

It opened in just eight theaters in December 2004 and went on to play for six and a half months.

Where did the film premiere on December 5, 2004?

Warner Bros. released it domestically ten days later, with Lakeshore's international unit handling overseas sales.

The nickname on Maggie's robe derives from a Gaelic phrase meaning what?

One critic noted that the film's use of Gaelic sparked some interest in the language and the phrase.

What grade did audiences polled by CinemaScore give the film?

Critics were similarly warm: it holds 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 86 on Metacritic.

Frankie Dunn's rundown boxing gym is in which city?

Filming took place on location in the city and on sets at Warner Bros. Studios.

Besides directing, co-producing and starring, what else did Eastwood do on the film?

His longtime editor Joel Cox handled the cutting and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing.