Random Behind-The-Scenes Stories From 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' (14 items)

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  (#8) Johnny Depp Won A Russian Acting Award For His Performance

  Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas flopped at the box office, and critics didn't like it. USA Today said it was "simply unwatchable," and Roger Ebert called it "a horrible mess of a movie." A reviewer at The Washington Post wrote, "Watching it is like being forced to listen to bad heavy metal music turned up to 11 while fat guys in Bermuda shorts compete in a puking contest in the john."

  Director Terry Gilliam knew people had varied responses to his films and wasn't surprised by the reactions, quipping, "The good thing about it was we got a decent number of walkouts - I was worried that we might not, but we did."

  Despite this less-than-stellar response, the film did garner some good press in Russia. The Russian Guild of Film Critics voted Johnny Depp Best Foreign Actor in 1998 for his performance. 
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  (#5) Hunter S. Thompson Shaved Johnny Depp's Head

  In order to fully transform into Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Depp shaved the top of his head. He did it just before traveling to Colorado to visit the real Thompson one last time before filming started. However, the writer didn't love the cut, and asked Depp to keep his hat on in public.

  Eventually, Thompson decided to tweak the style himself, and with permission, he cropped Depp's hair to perfection. "He was very gentle. No cuts. No weirdness. He wore a mining light, so he could see. He's prepared for f*cking everything," Depp remembered.
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  (#2) The Filmmakers Used Different Techniques For Different Substances

  According to director Terry Gilliam, the film recreates the effects of taking various psychoactive substances, "with all the uppers and downers in it. Both the most manic wonderful stuff and the really depressing stuff." To achieve this visual experience, the filmmakers used jump cuts, recorded scenes at odd angles, shot in slow-motion, and employed a wide-angle lens to make scenes uncomfortably disorientating.

  To get the viewer into the characters' heads, director of photography Nicola Pecorini used a different film technique for each substance depicted in the film. Mescaline can create an altered sense of time and make colors seem more intense, so Pecorini shot those scenes with soft lighting and a similar color palette, causing colors to blend into one another. Acid scenes make use of the wide-angle lens, distorting the surroundings and creating a sense of expansion. Sections involving adrenochrome use closeups to imitate claustrophobia and disordered thoughts.
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  (#11) Many Las Vegas Casinos Refused To Work With The Filmmakers

  Due to the unflattering image the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas paints of the infamous city, many casinos and hotels refused to work with the film's producers. That forced director Terry Gilliam to get creative. Once Circus Circus turned Gilliam down, he invented a faux establishment named Bazooka Circus to avoid any legal issues.

  The filmmaker used a 20-foot clown head with an open mouth as the casino's entrance and re-created the actual venue's carousel bar - though in the film, it rotates in the opposite direction.

  A few smaller casinos, like the Binions, the Riviera, and the Palace Hotel, agreed to allow filming, but remained open to the public. The crew could use two lanes of the Palace Hotel's six and had to work around visitors' cars and actual gamblers. Filming occurred between 2 am to 6 am, and the set lights couldn't be bright enough to blind patrons. Gilliam remembered:

  We could control six tables that were close to camera. So we had our extras there and the rest of the scene was the casino running as normal... The strange thing was we couldn't use phony money at the tables; we had to gamble with real money, and the dealers are their dealers! So we had a chance of either losing the budget or doubling the budget.

  Re-creating the Las Vegas of the 1970s also proved to difficult, requiring computer generated imagery as well as footage from the '70s television show Vega$ projected behind the actors.
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  (#6) Benicio del Toro's Performance Cost Him Future Job Opportunities

  In order to better resemble the fictional Dr. Gonzo, Benicio del Toro ate 16 donuts a day over an eight-week period to gain a lot of weight rapidly. "I didn't get a trainer. I did it macho style, stupid-style. I gained the weight really quick and it took a while to get it off," the actor recalled.

  After production on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas finished, del Toro struggled to find more work. He explained:

  In between work, I had meetings and people saw me and said, "Oh my God, this guy went off the rails"...

  People in Hollywood can be as gullible as anywhere. Just because they’re in the world of make-believe doesn’t mean they don’t believe it. After I tried to get a couple of jobs, the feedback I got was that people didn’t want to see me because, "We know he’s got a drinking problem..." And the only reason for that was because they had seen Fear and Loathing. Maybe it was a compliment.

  The actor managed to lose the weight, but didn't appear in a movie for another two years.
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  (#10) Hunter S. Thompson Called Tobey Maguire A 'Freak'

  Mostly uninvolved with the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson didn't see the final product until production wrapped. On the DVD commentary for the movie, the author made it clear he didn't enjoy Tobey Maguire's portrayal of the young hitchhiker.

  Thompson said, "That kid is a stupid... a wax doll of some kind." A second voice explained Maguire was a popular actor who played Spider-Man, but Thompson let out an exasperated sigh and responded, "I don't see why I guess... Look at that freak."

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