Anecdotes for
Rain Man (1988)

photos

board

trailer

details

• The script originally had Raymond as happy and friendly, but after an initial reading Dustin Hoffman successfully lobbied for Raymond to be a withdrawn autistic.
  
  
• After being interviewed by the psychiatrist, Raymond (Hoffman) leans his head against Charlie's and says "My main man Charlie". This was unscripted, and improvised by Hoffman.
  
  
• Raymond states that his underwear is from the K-Mart on Oak and Burnett. This address is actually for the Vernon Manor Hotel in Cincinnati, the hotel where Charlie, Raymond and Suzanna stay in the beginning of the movie.
  
  

• Raymond memorizes a phone book up to the names Marsha and William Gottsegen -- Dustin Hoffman's real-life in-laws.
  
  
• For in-flight viewing, several airlines deleted the sequence in which Raymond reels off statistics on airline accidents.
  
  
• Early in the film, when the lawyer is reading the will to Charlie, Charlie says "I definitely got the rose bushes, I have definitely got the rose bushes." This foreshadows Raymond's extensive use of the word "definitely" later on.
  
  
• Jake Hoffman, the boy at the pancake counter, is Dustin Hoffman's son.
  
  
• Dustin Hoffman originally wanted Bill Murray to play Charlie.
  
  
• Hoffman was originally supposed to play Charlie, but he wanted to play Raymond. Raymond was also supposed to be mentally retarded, but Hoffman changed it to an autistic savant.
  
  
• Hoffman fought for the ending where Raymond goes back to Wallbrook, even though the screenwriters both wanted him to end up with Charlie. Hoffman thought it wouldn't be true to Raymond's character if they had him stay.
  
  
• J.T. Walsh was originally supposed to play the psychiatrist at the end of the movie. When he couldn't, Levinson filled in, after Hoffman suggested it. Levinson said if he didn't like the way it looked, he would have someone else film it. He ad-libbed repeatedly to "push Cruise's buttons".
  
  
• The script was originally written with Dennis Quaid and Randy Quaid in mind.
  
  
• Both Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro turned down the part of Raymond.
  
  
• Cruise's wearing Ray Bans boosted sales of that style 15%.
  
  
• During the shooting of the casino scenes, Hoffman would go off and play games like blackjack. After production was halted to look for him, someone was assigned to watch him during takes.
  
  
• Cruise always wanted to rehearse while filming. He and Hoffman rehearsed while driving to the set, and in their trailers during takes. They frequently switched roles.
  
  
• The scene in the airport was cut by most airlines on their plane trips... except Qantas. They even promoted one of the movie's writers to first class once when he traveled on their airline.
  
  
• Levinson turned down the movie when it was first offered to him. He made Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) instead. After several directors backed out later, however, he took it on.
  
  
• The Amarillo, Texas motel scene was actually filmed at the Big 8 Motel in El Reno, Oklahoma. The motel maintains a sign used in the film that reads: "Amarillo's Finest." Guests sometimes request to stay in the same room where Raymond and Charlie stayed, room #117.
  
  
• The character of Charlie Babbitt was originally written as a 56-year-old.
  
  
• The movie playing on the TV when Raymond walks in on Charlie and Susanna's lovemaking is Sweet Smell of Success (1957).
  
  
• Barry Levinson admitted that Ray's comment about Qantas being the only aircraft company to never have had a fatal crash was made up, and that he didn't know if this was true. In reality, Qantas has had eight crashes, all prior to the making of the film, but they were all propeller-driven planes, not jets.
  
  
• The radio station slogan that Raymond is so fond of repeating, "97X - Bam! - The future of rock and roll", is from a real independent Ohio radio station, WOXY. The station still fields questions about the movie.
  
  
• During filming, Dustin Hoffman was unsure of the film's potential and his own performance. Three weeks into the project, Hoffman wanted out, telling director Barry Levinson, "Get Richard Dreyfuss, get somebody, Barry, because this is the worst work of my life." Hoffman would nab his second Best Actor Oscar for his work.
  
  
• During filmimg, both Hoffman and Cruise doubted the movie's potential and jokingly called it, "Two Schmucks in a Car".
  
  
• Director Cameo: [Barry Levinson] psychiatrist determining if Raymond should stay with Charlie or not.
  
  
• Reportedly one of Princess Diana's favorite films.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [Barry Levinson] Ralph Tabakin (Shift Boss) has appeared in every Levinson picture from Diner (1982) to Liberty Heights (1999).
  
  
• Dustin Hoffman was originally to play the part of Charlie Babbit, but after being moved to tears seeing a "savant" named Leslie Lemke (who is blind, retarded, and has cerebral palsy) play full concertos on the piano by ear, he decided to play the part of Raymond instead.
  
  
• The elderly man in the waiting room who talks on and on about the Pony Express is Bryon P. Caunar, an 89-year-old local who was in the waiting room when the crew arrived to film there. He got to talking on his favorite subject, the Pony Express, and director Barry Levinson got such a kick out of it that he let Caunar keep on talking as the cameras rolled; all his dialog was spontaneous and not scripted.
  
  
• "Wallbrook", the building at the back of the long, tree lined drive, is actually Saint Anne's, a convent that houses over 200 nuns, and is located in Melbourne, Kentucky.
  
  
• The script originally called for two farm kids, but after Catherine Dougherty brought six of her seven sons to audition for the part, the script was re-written to include the six boys. The boys also have an older brother and one younger sister.
  
  
• The character of Raymond Babbitt was inspired by real-life American savant Kim Peek, born 1952, whom Rain Man writer Barry Morrow first met in 1986. When Barry Morrow won an Oscar for the screenplay of "Rain Man" in 1989, he gave his Oscar trophy to Kim Peek.
  
  
• Holds the unique distinction of being the only film to have won the Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear and a best picture Academy Award.
  
  
• Dustin Hoffman spent a lot of time with Kim Peek, who inspired the character and this movie. Being so impressed with Mr. Peek, he made his father (Kim's main caregiver) promise that he would "share [Kim] with the world." Since then Kim Peek has been going all over the world impressing people with his incredible memory and ability to recall minute details from centuries of history.
  
  
• What Raymond says about Quantas was, and still is true. As of 2007, Qantas has never lost a jet airliner.
  
  
• At one point Sydney Pollack let his friend Barry Levinson read the screenplay. Levinson was much taken with it. One evening, whilst driving across the desert, he saw a cluster of windmills on the horizon. He turned to his wife and said that it would make a perfect backdrop for a scene with Charlie and his girlfriend. Seven weeks before shooting, Pollack called Levinson and told him that he should make the movie. With a writers' strike looming, Levinson had to agree immediately.
  
  
• Dustin Hoffman spent a year working with autistic men and their families to understand their complex relationships. Also, when he was a jobbing actor, he had worked in a psychiatric care home, and drew from his experiences then for the film.
  
  
• Screenwriter Barry Morrow chose the name of the film by reading through a book of names, deciding which sounded most interesting when mispronounced. He eventually narrowed it down to four names, including "Rain Man" for Raymond and "No-Man" for Norman. Marrow decided that Rain Man was the best. In order to see if this instinct was correct, he asked his children which of the four they preferred and all agreed with his choice.
  
  
• United Artists nearly passed on the project as they knew that Warner Brothers were working on a similarly themed film, which ultimately turned out to be Forrest Gump (1994).
  
  
• Hans Zimmer's first Hollywood score.
  
  
• Barry Levinson specifically instructed composer Hans Zimmer to avoid strings in his score as he felt it would make the film too sentimental.
  
  
• The part of Susanna had originally been written as a WASPish blonde woman. By having a foreigner play the role, whose native tongue wasn't English, it allowed for Tom Cruise's character to do a lot of exposition.
  
  
• The film opened with a disappointing $6 million. However, in the following weeks, it generated great word of mouth, steadily climbing up to number 1.
  
  
• Although they share co-screenwriting credit, Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass never met until the numerous awards ceremonies they attended when the film started garnering multiple awards.
  
  
• Shot in sequential order, roughly following the actual road trip that the characters take.
  
  
• Levinson shot most of the exchanges between Charlie and Raymond in profile because Raymond refuses to make eye contact with anyone he's talking to.
  
  
• The scene in the motel room where Charlie remembers his older brother -- and why he called him Rain Man -- was shot in one take. This was done well into filming when the actors had both found a natural rhythm together.
  
  
• One of the comments written on a preview card that amused Barry Levinson during the film's initial previews was "I was hoping the little guy would snap out of it".
  
  
• At one point, "Rain Man" was the biggest grossing Best Picture Oscar-winner. It was subsequently surpassed by Forrest Gump (1994) which had been put into development at a rival studio at roughly the same time.
  
  
• Ronald Bass's first involvement with the film (when Martin Brest was attached) all took place over the phone as he was suffering from adult chicken pox at the time. As both Brest and Dustin Hoffman's wives were pregnant at the time, no one actually wanted to sit down for a face-to-face meeting with him.
  
  
• On "Oprah", Cruise and Hoffman said the "farting in the phone booth" bit was improvised when Hoffman actually passed gas while the scene was being filmed. Hoffman said it was his favorite scene ever.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg considered directing. He began making notes in order to prepare for the project. The reason he backed out is because his friend George Lucas needed him to start work on the third Indiana Jones film. So Spielberg left the project and gave his notes to Barry Levinson.
  
  

Related Links