‘True Romance’ 15 Years Later: A Look Back

Gotta hand it to Maxim (of all people), they have this great retrospective feature on “True Romance” that came out 15 years ago and bombed on arrival. Of course now it’s a cult hit that spawns Judd Apatow comedies, but back then, Quentin Tarantino was just beginning to take off. There’s tons of little fun facts in this piece, that’s rather long, so we broke it down to give you a greatest hits. You can also remember this was one of the last great movies Tony Scott directed until he became his overwrought aesthetics became a parody of themselves. We’re also big suckers for factoids and trivia (but everyone should know by now that in Tarantino’s original script Christian Slater’s character dies, but after he saw the final version motormouth was cool with it).

We sort of dislike Tarantino these days, but this film goes down in the pantheon at the very least for the Dennis Hopper/Christopher Walken showdown/eggplant monologue. An amazing actor standoff if there ever was one.
Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater fell in love while on set
“It was love at first sight,” Slater said. “But working with Patricia was tricky, because I was in a relationship. We both made attempts to be professional, but at that age it was difficult.

Tony Scott Wanted Drew Barrymore For the Role Of Alabama
” He was obsessed with her. He had pictures of her wearing little outfits. But I think she was unavailable,” Arquette” said

Tony Scott Wanted To Direct “True Romance” and “Resevoir Dogs”
“I read them both on a flight to Europe. By the time I landed, I wanted to make both of them into movies. When I told Quentin, he said, ‘You can only do one,’ ” the director recalled

Tarantino Originally Modelled The Characters After Less Pretty People
“Christian Slater… was too handsome. I was thinking of Robert Carradine. When I wrote it, my ideal Alabama was Joan Cusack,” QT said.

Everybody In Hollywood Wanted To Be In The Film
“Val Kilmer wanted to play Clarence. I had a different vision, so Val said, ‘Then let me play Elvis.’ For six months before we started shooting, he would sing Elvis songs on my answering machine. Brad Pitt, who had recently done ‘Thelma & Louise,’ called and said, ‘Why don’t you let me play the roommate?’ I said, ‘Are you serious? Fucking yes!’ because he was on the bloom of stardom.”
Gary Oldman Didn’t Need A Hard Sell For His Role
“[Tony Scott] said, ‘Look, I can’t really explain the plot. But Drexl’s a pimp who’s white but thinks he’s black.’ That was all I needed to hear,” Oldman remembered. ” I said, ‘I’ll do it.’ “

“True Romance” made a miserable $11.5 million at the box office when it opened.

Watch: Original “True Romance” trailer
It’s pretty amusing that is starts out with, by the director of “Top Gun” and “Beverly Hills Cop”