Random Fascinating Facts You Probably Didn't Know About 'Scarface' (15 items)

• 

  (#1) 'Scarface' Initially Received An X Rating

  Due to the film's language, violence, and substance use, the MPAA initially gave Scarface an "X" rating. Because an X rating (normally associated with adult material) would have severely limited ticket sales, director Brian De Palma re-edited the movie four times to try and change the board's decision. However, even after the edits, the MPAA still felt that the film was too violent.

  De Palma eventually gave up and refused to cut the movie any further. He even told Universal that they would have to fire him and find someone else to hack away at his film. The studio decided to appeal the MPAA's verdict. Eventually, the decision was overturned and Scarface received an R rating. 
• 

  (#2) Pacino Did Not Want Michelle Pfeiffer To Play Elvira

  Michelle Pfeiffer only had one big screen credit, starring in the notorious box office flop Grease 2, before auditioning for the role of Tony's wife, Elvira Hancock. Unfortunately for the relatively unknown actor, most of Hollywood was also up for the coveted role. Fortunately for Pfeiffer, producer Martin Bregman liked the blonde bombshell for the part.

  Pacino, on the other hand, wanted to pass on Pfeiffer. "We continued auditions but I knew that it was going to be Michelle. And so did Brian," said Bregman. "But it took a little time to convince Al. He was concerned that she was not experienced enough and that she didn't look right. She didn't fit the image of Elvira that he had in his mind. But he was dead wrong. To put a long-standing rumor to rest: It wasn't Brian, it was Al who had the resistance to Michelle."

  Pacino told Martin Bregman that he wanted Glenn Close for Elvira. Bregman, however, ultimately made the call to cast Pfeiffer. Her portrayal of Elvira launched the actor's career and she became one of the most marketable stars of the '80s. 
• 

  (#3) Al Pacino Injured His Hand On Set

  Al Pacino and costar Steven Bauer, who played Manny Ribera, rehearsed for the gangster movie for several weeks before filming began. During one session, Pacino seriously hurt his hand with a machine gun. The injury would keep him out of the rehearsal room for two weeks.

  He explained how he received his injury: "I got shot! [...] I shot off 30 rounds. I get hit with the squibs. I start leaping up in the air, flying up in the air and I land and I go to grab the gun and guess what? I grabbed the barrel...on the gun that just shot off 30 rounds. My hand stuck to that sucker. That was it. I couldn't get my hand off of it. I couldn't work for two weeks." Now that's some commitment. 
• 

  (#4) Pacino Channeled Meryl Streep To Play Tony Montana

  Al Pacino could have looked to all the obvious choices for inspiration for his ruthless gangster character. There's his costar Marlon Brando from The Godfather, for one. He could have turned to Paul Muni from the original Scarface, or even Edward G. Robinson from Little Caesar.

  Instead, Pacino looked to Meryl Streep's work in one of the saddest movies in film history. "I was very inspired by Meryl Streep's work in Sophie's Choice. I thought that her way of involving herself in playing someone who is from another country and another world was particularly fine and committed and... courageous."
• 

  (#5) Martin Scorsese Knew The Movie Was Going To Be A Critical Failure

  When Scarface first hit theaters, it was universally panned by critics. According to costar Steven Bauer, during the premiere of Scarface, Martin Scorsese said to him, "You guys are great but be prepared, because they're going to hate it in Hollywood." Bauer asked Scorsese why and he replied, "Because it's about them."

  The film explored the illusion of the American dream. Tony believed that more wealth and more power would lead to his happiness. Scarface can be viewed as an allegory to what was going on in Hollywood during the dysfunctional 1980s. At that time, the industry was filled with substance abuse and corruption. And of course, there has always been the myth that rising to the top of the celebrity food chain would lead to personal fulfillment. Apparently, that message hit a little too close to home for some of Hollywood's elite. 
• 

  (#6) The F-Word Is Used 207 Times In The Film

  The gangster flick uses the F-Word 207 times during its 170-minute runtime. That means someone drops the F-bomb, on average, 1.21 times every minute. It's a real family-friendly crowd pleaser, you know? 

  After a star-studded New York City premiere for the movie, Lucille Ball commented on the profanity. “We thought the performances were excellent,” she said, “but we got awful sick of that word.” Guess there can be too much of a good thing after all.
• 

  (#7) 'Scarface' Was A Remake (And It Was Pacino's Idea)

  Brian De Palma's Scarface is a remake of Howard Hawkes's 1932 gangster film starring Paul Muni as Tony Camonte. That film is based on the rise and fall of America's most well-known gangster, Al Capone. 

  Between making The Godfather: Part II (1974) and The Godfather: Part III (1990), Pacino got the idea to take on a much different type of gangster. After seeing Hawkes's 1932 original, Pacino became inspired and felt the need to play Tony Montana. He explained how the inspiration came to him:

  "My first experience was seeing Paul Muni's Scarface at the Tiffany Theater here in Los Angeles. I went and saw the film and then I called Martin Bregman and said, 'I think we can do this. I think there's a remake here.' He, very wisely and astutely, got out here, saw it, and put the whole thing together."
• 

  (#8) Oliver Stone Wrote The Screenplay While Recovering From Cocaine Addiction

  Before Oliver Stone became an Academy Award-winning director, he was an accomplished screenwriter. He even took home an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1979 for Midnight Express. Stone admitted in a 2003 interview with Total Film that coke had "kicked his ass." He used his recovery time from the ubiquitous 1980s party powder to write the script for Scarface, even basing some of the film's elaborate coke scenes off of his own experiences.

  Stone described his recovery process: "I had been hooked for a year or two and I decided to kick it and I moved to France, which was the best thing I ever did. I cut all my connections to LA, had a new life and wrote Scarface in an apartment in Paris. I wrote it straight which was good because I don't think cocaine helps writing. It's very destructive to the brain cells. I think my writing was getting shallower."
• 

  (#9) John Travolta Was De Palma's First Choice To Play Manny

  Brian De Palma worked with John Travolta previously in the 1981 movie Blow Out. However, the relatively unknown Cuban-American actor from Miami, Steven Bauer, beat out the Hollywood star for the role of Tony's best friend, Manny Ribera. Bauer turned out to be the perfect actor for the role. He was actually Cuban, for a start, and he helped Pacino with his accent.

  Pacino discussed how working with Bauer helped him to build his gangster character on James Lipton Actors Studio. "Bauer and I spent months preparing for this. He's Cuban, so I could spend a lot of time with him... building the character. I'd never quite thought of a character that way, from the outside, too [i.e., in addition to the inside Method-style.] Starting with the scar and the accent and the body language." Good thing they passed on Travolta, huh?
• 

  (#10) Kurt Vonnegut Walked Out Before The Movie Ended

  Two of America's most well-regarded authors, John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut, had to leave the movie theater after the infamous chainsaw scene. Vonnegut explained that the movie was too gory for him. He was a famous pacifist, after all. 

  Model Cheryl Tiegs agreed and called the motion picture, "the most violent film I've ever seen. It makes you never want to hear the word 'cocaine' again."
• 

  (#11) The Cuban Community Forced The Production To Move West

  Scarface was supposed to be filmed in Miami (where the events of the film take place). However, threats and anger surfaced from the Cuban community due to the film's depiction of Cubans as criminals. Additionally, the Miami Tourist Board feared that the film would negatively affect tourism, because Miami was depicted as a place for drugs and gangsters. The production was forced to move out west to Los Angeles, where most of the film was eventually shot.

  Patricia Norris, one of the film's costume designers, spoke about the real danger that the cast and crew faced on the set while in Miami:

  I did think that they'd kill us if we stayed in Miami. There were members of the community who hated us because they thought we were doing a pro-Castro movie, which was absurd, but their anger was very serious. And there were real drug people around, Colombians who came on the set. The day a fellow sat down in a chair next to me, and crossed his legs, and I saw a gun strapped to his ankle, I knew I wanted to get back to Los Angeles. Thank God we did, within two weeks.
• 

  (#12) Steven Spielberg Made A Directing Cameo

  You probably know this climactic scene; it's one of the most memorable in movie history. Tony Montana waits in his Miami mansion for his enemies to come and end him. There's an insane pile of coke on his desk as he clutches onto an M16 and grenade launcher. This is the part where he says, "Say hello to my little friend."

  Steven Spielberg was visiting his friend Brian De Palma on set the day the legendary scene was filming. The Jaws director wound up shooting one of the shots for the scene, in which a gangster tosses a grappling hook to the top of Tony's mansion. Spielberg did not receive a directing credit for his effort, just a chance to be part of cinema history. 
• 

  (#13) Sidney Lumet Was 'Scarface's Original Director

  Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network) was originally supposed to direct Scarface. When he was working with Oliver Stone on the film's script, however, it became apparent the two had a different vision for the film. "Oliver Stone was writing about stuff that was touching on things that were going on in the world, he was in touch with that energy and that rage and that underbelly."

  Lumet left the project and Brian De Palma was hired. "De Palma had a different vision," Pacino said, "a way I hadn't thought about at all. He brought a definite style to it. He knew what he wanted to do with it right from the start. Brian approaches things - situations, sensibilities, relationships - from another angle, another place than I do, but we were able to get along."
• 

  (#14) 'Scarface' Is Al Pacino's Favorite Movie

  Al Pacino has been in some of the finest films in movie history, but his favorite is still Scarface. Despite the film's controversy and initial poor reviews, the actor always believed that the movie would remain relevant for decades to come.

  "The picture had a fire to it. That was part of Brian's concept, to do everything in an extraordinary way - to have the violence blown up, the language blown up," he explained. "The spirit of it was operatic. It didn't opt for sentiment but had an almost fable-like quality to it. It was probably the most popular picture I ever made, but the reaction to it was stranger than any of my other films. That picture did something to me. It was a lot of movie. You go to a movie, you get a lot of movie with Scarface."
• 

  (#15) Brett Ratner Was An Extra In The Movie

  Hollywood producer and director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand) lived in Miami when he was a teenager. He played an extra in Scarface during a Miami street scene. Ratner said that he would skip school and go to the set every day where he would watch De Palma give direction to Pacino. That image of a director telling an actor what to do would stick with Ratner.

  Ratner did a Variety cover shoot with Pacino in 2007. He told Pacino how seeing him on the set of Scarface made him want to become a director. When Pacino asked him why that was, Ratner explained, "Because I saw you act and I could never be that good, so I wanted to be the guy who told you what to do."

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking