49 Fun Facts About Misery

Stephen King refused to sell Misery's film rights until the director of which earlier King adaptation asked for them?

Stand by Me. King had held Misery back after watching studios mishandle his earlier books, but he thought that 1986 film the best yet made from his work, so its director got the rights.

Who plays Annie Wilkes in the 1990 film Misery?

Kathy Bates was a stage actress barely known to film audiences. The screenwriter had written Annie with her in mind, and an independent production company meant no studio could insist on a bigger star.

Who plays the captive novelist Paul Sheldon in the 1990 film Misery?

James Caan spends nearly the whole film in bed or a wheelchair. He joked that it was a sadistic idea to cast someone as restless as him, and said playing a man who can only react was far tougher than his usual parts.

Who directed the 1990 film Misery?

Rob Reiner was known for comedies, and this was his first thriller. He said he identified with a writer afraid of breaking away from what his audience expected of him.

Which screenwriter adapted Misery for the screen?

William Goldman fought to keep the novel's scene in which Annie cuts off Paul's foot, and lost. He later admitted the change was right: audiences would have hated Annie, and then the film.

What kind of books has Paul Sheldon made his fortune writing?

Victorian romance novels. When he crashes he has just finished a very different book, a rough-tongued contemporary novel that he hopes will finally make critics take him seriously.

What is the surname of Misery, the heroine of Paul's book series?

Chastain. Paul has come to hate her, yet as his agent points out, Misery Chastain is the character who made him rich.

In Misery, Paul Sheldon marks every finished manuscript with a single cigarette and a glass of which champagne?

Dom Pérignon. On the last night he asks Annie for the full ritual, then sends her back for a second glass so she can join the toast, which buys him the moment he needs.

In Misery, in which US state does Paul Sheldon crash his car in a blizzard?

Colorado. The film never went there, though: its snowbound town of Silver Creek was built in Nevada, and the farmhouse interiors on a Hollywood soundstage.

In the film Misery, what car is Paul Sheldon driving when he crashes in the blizzard?

A Mustang, a 1965 model. When it is finally found under the snow, the sheriff spots crowbar marks on the door and realises that someone must have pulled the driver out.

What was Annie Wilkes's profession before she settled in her remote farmhouse?

Nurse. It is how she can splint his shattered legs, reset his shoulder and dose him from her own stockpile of painkillers instead of taking him to a hospital.

How does Annie Wilkes describe herself to Paul Sheldon in Misery?

His number one fan. She means it literally: she admits she used to park outside the lodge where he writes, and she was right behind his car when the blizzard hit.

What sends Annie into a rage after she reads Paul's latest book?

The heroine dies at the end. In the novel Annie's revenge is to drive off and leave Paul alone for more than two days with no food, water or painkillers.

What does Annie make Paul do with the only copy of his new manuscript?

Burn it. She wheels a charcoal grill to his bedside and makes him strike the match himself, knowing he never keeps a second copy of a work in progress.

What is the title of the new book Annie forces Paul to write?

Misery's Return. In the novel the pages Paul destroys in front of Annie are a decoy, so the real manuscript survives and is published after his rescue.

What does Paul use to unlock his bedroom door while Annie is out?

A bobby pin that Annie dropped. It gets him only so far: the phone is dead and every outside door is locked, so he has to wheel himself back before she returns.

The scrapbook Paul finds reveals that Annie was tried in connection with what?

Several infant deaths at a hospital, for which she walked free for lack of evidence. The scrapbook's last clipping is about Paul's own disappearance, which tells him who is next.

In the film Misery, what does Annie use to break Paul's ankles in the 'hobbling' scene?

A sledgehammer, with a block of wood wedged between his feet. The novel is bloodier, but the director said he cut its goriest moments to keep the story a chess match between writer and fan.

In the novel Misery, which tool does Annie use to cut off Paul's foot, a punishment the film toned down?

An axe, after which she seals the wound with a blowtorch. The screenwriter fought to keep the scene and lost; he later wrote that the director had been right.

In the novel Misery, what does Annie cut off with an electric knife when Paul complains about his typewriter?

His thumb. The second-hand typewriter had already lost a key, and Annie took his grumbling about it as one insult too many.

Which mock swear word does Annie Wilkes use in Misery in place of real profanity?

Cockadoodie. 'Dirty bird' is another of her stand-ins, and the first glimpse of her temper is a furious lecture about the swearing in Paul's new manuscript.

Which flamboyant pianist is Annie's favourite musician in the film Misery?

Liberace. When Paul's new chapters delight her, Annie promises to play her Liberace records all day long to inspire him.

In the film Misery, how does Annie kill the sheriff who finds Paul in her basement?

With a shotgun, from behind, the moment he spots Paul. She plans to shoot Paul and herself next, and he survives only by persuading her to let him finish the novel first.

Which veteran actor and former stuntman plays Sheriff Buster in Misery?

Richard Farnsworth spent decades as a stuntman, doubling for Western stars, before winning roles of his own. At 79, The Straight Story made him the oldest Best Actor nominee the Oscars had then seen.

In the film Misery, Sheriff Buster's wife Virginia also holds which town job?

Deputy. Frances Sternhagen's Virginia exists only on screen: the novel has no sheriff couple, and it is a lone state trooper who turns up at Annie's door.

Which Hollywood legend plays Paul Sheldon's literary agent, Marcia Sindell, in Misery?

Lauren Bacall's agent is the one who raises the alarm: when Paul fails to turn up, she phones the sheriff in Silver Creek, and that call starts the search.

In the film Misery, what does Paul finally use to kill Annie in their last fight?

A heavy iron doorstop. Paul had already hit Annie with the typewriter, and she seemed dead after falling head-first onto it, when she lunged at him one last time.

In Misery's final scene, eighteen months after his escape, whom does Paul briefly see as Annie?

A waitress. He has just turned down his agent's idea of a book about the ordeal, admitting he is not over it, when she walks up and greets him as a devoted reader.

Which Oscar did Misery win at the 1991 Academy Awards?

Best Actress, for the film's Annie, who also took the Golden Globe. A year earlier she had been a stage performer hardly known to cinema audiences.

Which two actresses turned down the role of Annie Wilkes in the 1990 film Misery?

Anjelica Huston and Bette Midler both passed: Huston chose The Grifters instead, and Midler later called her own refusal stupid.

At their candlelit dinner in the film Misery, why does Paul's attempt to drug Annie's wine fail?

She knocks the glass over while reaching for a toppled candle, never knowing what was in it. The powder came from painkiller capsules Paul had been hiding in his mattress instead of swallowing.

Which Dick Tracy star held serious talks to play Paul Sheldon in Misery and suggested script changes, but never signed on?

Warren Beatty wanted the writer to be far less passive, and some of his ideas went into the rewrites. The director called him very smart but 'tough to pin down'.

What nickname did newspapers give Annie Wilkes during her trial in Misery?

The Dragon Lady. Paul reads the headlines one by one in her scrapbook, from her arrest to the day a court found her not guilty.

Misery opened second at the US box office in November 1990, behind which family comedy?

Home Alone was in its third weekend at number one, the start of a twelve-week run that kept every other release that winter, Misery included, out of first place.

Where did Stephen King begin writing Misery, at a desk said to have been Rudyard Kipling's?

Brown's Hotel in London. Sleepless on his first night there, he asked the concierge for somewhere quiet to write, and was told afterwards that Kipling had died at that very desk.

Under which pseudonym had Stephen King planned to publish Misery?

Richard Bachman. His cover was blown in 1985, when a bookshop clerk found King's name in Library of Congress copyright records, so the novel he was then writing came out under his real name.

What was Stephen King's working title for Misery?

The Annie Wilkes Edition named the ending King first planned: Annie would make Paul write her a novel, then bind the only copy in his skin. Paul proved too resourceful for that.

Stephen King has said Annie Wilkes was partly a metaphor for what in his own life?

His drug and alcohol addiction. In 2014 he called Misery 'a book about cocaine', with Annie as the drug; soon after the novel appeared his wife staged an intervention and he got clean.

Misery was its director's follow-up to which hit 1989 romantic comedy?

When Harry Met Sally…. He was already at work on the thriller when the comedy became a hit, and said hardly a day passed without someone telling him to keep making films like that.

Who starred as Paul Sheldon and Annie Wilkes in the 2015 Broadway play of Misery?

Bruce Willis and Laurie Metcalf. The run was the film star's Broadway debut, but it was Metcalf's Annie that came away with a Tony nomination.

Which other Stephen King villain joined Annie Wilkes on the AFI's 2003 list of 50 greatest villains?

Jack Torrance of The Shining came 25th, eight places below Annie. King might well agree with that order: he calls Kubrick's film cold, and Misery a great one.

Which actress played Annie Wilkes, years before the events of Misery, in season two of the TV series Castle Rock?

Lizzy Caplan's Annie gets stranded in the town of the title. The finale leaves her in the front row at a Paul Sheldon book signing, newly devoted to his novels.

On what did Stephen King jot down the idea for Misery after dreaming it on a transatlantic flight?

An airline cocktail napkin. He wrote the dream down so he would not forget it, and that night, unable to sleep in his hotel, he expanded it into sixteen handwritten pages.

In the novel Misery, how does Annie kill the state trooper who comes looking for Paul?

With her riding lawnmower. She had been mowing when the young trooper pulled into her drive and Paul shouted for help; afterwards she hid both the body and the patrol car.

Misery won the first Best Novel award given by which horror-fiction prize, for 1987?

Bram Stoker. That first vote ended in a tie, so King shared the award with Robert McCammon's novel Swan Song.

Which Cagney & Lacey star played Annie Wilkes in the 1992 London stage version of Misery?

Sharon Gless had lived a version of the story: not long before, an obsessed fan had broken into her Los Angeles home, and was sent to prison for it.

What is the name of the painkiller Annie feeds Paul throughout Misery?

Novril. Paul comes to depend on the capsules, which lets Annie punish him simply by making him wait for the next dose.

What uncredited cameo does Misery's director make in the film?

A helicopter pilot. He flies Sheriff Buster over the snowy hills in search of Paul, and they pass right above Annie's farm before turning back.

In the film Misery, what kind of animal has Annie named after Paul's heroine?

A pig. Annie brings the sow into Paul's bedroom to meet him, and the animal is billed in the credits as 'Misery the Pig', playing herself.