Leaving Las Vegas
Short description
Ben Sanderson was a Hollywood screenwriter until alcohol cost him his career and his family. With little left, he travels to Las Vegas with a single intention: to drink until he dies. There he meets Sera, a sex worker, and the two strike up an arrangement built on mutual acceptance rather than judgment. Their relationship becomes the centre of the film, as each tries to offer the other something neither expected to find.
Mike Figgis wrote and directed the film, which followed his earlier features Stormy Monday, Internal Affairs and Mr. Jones, and arrived in 1995. Nicolas Cage plays Ben and Elisabeth Shue plays Sera, with Julian Sands, Richard Lewis, Steven Weber and Kim Adams among the supporting cast. The production was made for about four million dollars and returned roughly thirty-two million worldwide, a strong result for a modestly budgeted drama.
On IMDb it holds a 7.5 rating from around 145,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.3 from a much smaller base of 1,713 ratings. A critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from 52 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores on both platforms.
What's left behind the scenes
- Nicolas Cage got into character by consuming large amounts of alcohol and visiting specialized clinics. Elizabeth Shue spoke with prostitutes in Las Vegas.
- Director Mike Figgis played the trumpet and keyboard instruments while recording the soundtrack.
- Naomi Campbell appeared in episodes, but these shots were not included in the film.
- During filming, Nicolas Cage was supposed to drink alcohol to make his manner of speech more convincing.
- In the scene where Ben is packing, you can see his glass being emptied several times, and then refilled.
- In the pool scene in the desert, the main character walks towards the pool, and there is no tattoo on his back, but a faint trace of it is visible. And after jumping into the water, the tattoo is already visible.
- The author, John O’Brien, on whose novel the film is based, committed suicide two weeks after filming began.
- The film Ben and Sarah watch at the Round Year Hotel is "The Third Man" (1949).
- A taxi appears in two scenes, with an advertisement on the roof for director Mike Figgis' company "Red Mullet" and his face.
- The Rolex watch worn by Ben are the actual watches of John O’Brien.
- The scene where Ben walks through the supermarket with a shopping cart of bottles and whistles a tune was chosen by "Empire" magazine as the eighth greatest drunken scene in film history (2005).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
