American Beauty (1999)

American Beauty (1999)

Director: Sam Mendes

Plot Synopsis

A sexually frustrated suburban father (Kevin Spacey) has a mid-life crisis after becoming infatuated with his daughter (Thora Birch)'s best friend (Mena Suvari).

Male Deaths

• Kevin Spacey [Lester Burnham]

Female Deaths

• None

Trivia

1. This is Sam Mendes' directorial debut.
2. Director Sam Mendes designed the two girls' look to change over the course of the film, with Thora Birch gradually using less makeup and Mena Suvari gradually using more, to emphasize his view of their shifting perceptions of themselves.
3. When Lester throws the asparagus, he was supposed to throw it on the floor. The reactions of Annette Bening and Thora Birch are genuine.
4. According to his Oscar speech, screenwriter Alan Ball was sitting at the World Trade Center plaza when he saw a paper bag floating in the wind and was inspired by it to write the film, which was originally conceived as a stage play.
5. When Lester masturbates in bed beside Carolyn, Sam Mendes asked Kevin Spacey to improvise several euphemisms for the act for each take. Mendes said, "I wanted that not just because it was funny [...] but because I didn't want it to seem rehearsed. I wanted it to seem like he was blurting it out of his mouth without thinking. [Spacey] is so in control - I wanted him to break through." Spacey obliged, eventually coming up with 35 phrases, but Annette Bening could not always keep a straight face, which meant the scene had to be shot 10 times.
6. Kevin Spacey improvised everything he does in the car while his character is stoned and singing to "American Woman."
7. Since Thora Birch was barely 17 years old at the time she made the film and thus classified as a minor in the United States, her parents had to approve her brief topless scene in the movie, and they and child labor representatives were on the set for the shooting of it. "To me, [the nudity] made sense," Birch said of the scene. "It wasn't something that shouldn't be in there. It's something that would happen."
8. The title of the film refers to a breed of roses that, while pretty and appealing in appearance, is often prone to rot underneath at the roots and branches of the plant. Thus, the tagline "... look closer" tells the viewer that when they look beyond the "perfect suburban life", they will find something rancid at the root.
9. The scene where Lester attacks Carolyn's feet with a remote control car was also unscripted, and Annette Bening's surprise and annoyance are a real reaction.
10. In the scene when Carolyn told Lester that she was ready to go while he was smoking pot with Ricky outside the restaurant, Kevin Spacey could not control his laughing and Wes Bentley can be seen laughing too, as this was not scripted.
11. Executive producer Steven Spielberg read the script on a Saturday night. When he arrived at the DreamWorks offices on the following Monday morning, he said, "Let's make this movie and let's not change a word."
12. Chris Cooper was the last actor cast, virtually when rehearsals were beginning. When he first read the script, he found the character infuriating, thinking, "God, do I want to spend so much time in this character's head?" He remembers, "Then I started making excuses...I said, this is such a negative script, I don't like this and that." His wife finally told him he was "frightened of this script and chances are because you're frightened, you should do this part;" his response was that he "knew, really immediately, that she was right."
13. The helicopter shot at the beginning of the movie was originally for a flying sequence where Lester floats over the houses and then down onto his bed.
14. Wes Bentley smoked honey tobacco with Kevin Spacey for the pot-smoking scenes.
15. Jim and Jim were deliberately depicted as the most normal, happy, and boring couple in the film. Alan Ball's inspiration for the characters came from a thought he had after seeing a "bland, boring, heterosexual couple" who wore matching clothes: "I can't wait for the time when a gay couple can be just as boring." Ball also included aspects of a gay couple he knew who had the same forename.
16. Jake Gyllenhaal and Seth Green auditioned for the role of Ricky Fitts.
17. Director Sam Mendes personally filmed the pivotal POV shot of Ricky's camera when he zooms past the figure of Angela to "look closer" at Jane's smiling reflection in the mirror.
18. The hand and stomach on the film's poster do not belong to Mena Suvari, but are in fact those of actresses/models Christina Hendricks and Chloe Hunter respectively.
19. This film and The Silence of the Lambs (1991) are the only Best Picture winners in the 1990s to not be a period piece.
20. Wes Bentley was the first actor to read for the part of Ricky, and was asked to do the scene where he describes his reaction to the plastic bag; the casting director felt that although she had read that scene numerous times, his reading was the first time she felt she understood the meaning of it.

Gallery

Kevin Spacey