Green Book
Inspired by a True Friendship.
Green Book (2018)
![Watch film Green Book — Green Book - Official Trailer [HD]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QkZxoko_HC0/maxresdefault.jpg)
Production
Budget
$23 000 000
Revenue
$321 752 656
Director
Scenario
Composer
Kris Bowers
Producer
Actors
Viggo Mortensen
Tony Lip
Mahershala Ali
Dr. Don Shirley
Linda Cardellini
Dolores
Sebastian Maniscalco
Johnny Venere
Dimiter D. Marinov
Oleg
Mike Hatton
George
P.J. Byrne
Record Exec
Joe Cortese
Gio Loscudo
Short description
Green Book is set in 1962 and follows Tony Lip, an Italian-American bouncer from the Bronx who takes a job driving and protecting Dr. Don Shirley, a Black concert pianist, on a tour that runs from New York into the Deep South. Because segregation limits where Black travelers can stay and eat, the two men rely on the Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide listing establishments that would serve them, as they move through territory where Shirley faces hostility and humiliation. Tony is rough, talkative and unschooled; Shirley is refined, multilingual and reserved. The clash between them gradually gives way to a working partnership and a friendship that crosses the lines both men grew up with.
Peter Farrelly directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Vallelonga and Brian Hayes Currie, and produced it with Charles B. Wessler and Jim Burke. It is the fourteenth of the eighteen films he has directed, arriving between Dumb and Dumber To and The Greatest Beer Run Ever. Viggo Mortensen plays Tony, Mahershala Ali plays Shirley, and Linda Cardellini, Sebastian Maniscalco, Dimiter D. Marinov and Mike Hatton appear in supporting roles. Produced on a budget of about 23 million dollars, it took roughly 322 million dollars worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 8.2 from 678,000 votes and on TMDB 8.2 from 13,273 votes, while critics rated it 7.3 from 362 reviews, so audiences have been noticeably warmer toward it than reviewers.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is dedicated to a raven nicknamed Larry, found near the set. The bird was hit by a car, and Viggo Mortensen took care of it.
- Dimitar Marinov was only approved for the role of Oleg on his second audition. Initially, his candidacy was rejected because the experienced violinist Dimitar couldn't play the cello at all. Marinov took cello lessons for 5 days, after which he came back for another audition and got the role.
- The film used 3 Cadillac DeVille cars – two in driving scenes and a third where the car is stationary. One of the cars was loaded with so much filming equipment that its springs gave way and the roof caved in.
- In the scene of returning home, Viggo Mortensen's character hums “Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle” – a traditional Italian Christmas hymn.
- Keeping in mind his reputation as a director who primarily works with comedies, Peter Farrelly tried to avoid overtly funny situations in this film.
- The film was shot in Louisiana, but the blizzard scene shown in it is real. Once, during a break, Viggo Mortensen persuaded Peter Farrelly and the crew to go and film the swirling snowflakes. They agreed, went outside, and were very surprised after a while to find that the snow kept falling and falling. A lot of footage was shot at that unexpected time, which meant the crew didn't have to go to Minnesota to film snow.
- Chris Bowers, the composer, played the piano in the film instead of Mahershala Ali.
- Anticipating that someday a film would be made combining the stories of his father and Don Shirley, Nick Vallelonga asked his father to recount once more what happened during the interview recordings. He himself had long conversations with Don. His notes, as well as his father's recollections, photographs, brochures, postcards, and even road maps were very helpful in working on the script.
- Costume designer Betsy Heimann selected rather tight costumes for Viggo Mortensen (the idea was that he had bought them many years ago, stopped paying attention to his figure since then, and never had enough money to buy new ones). She also explained to the actor that in those years, trousers were traditionally worn at the waist, not on the hips.
- While preparing to play Don Shirley, Mahershala Ali worked closely with composer Kris Bowers. Unfortunately, no film footage of Don Shirley has survived, so the actor had to rely on fragmented information from memoirs, as well as a documentary about Carnegie Hall, the concert hall in New York, in the attic spaces above which Don Shirley (1927-2013) once lived with 60 other musicians.
- In real life, Tony Boltuon's children were younger than they appeared in the film. Older actors' children had to be used due to labor laws regulating the amount of time child actors can spend at work.
- In scenes where the film's characters speak Italian, the script simply stated, without explanation, "they speak Italian." When Viggo Mortensen inquired about this with director Peter Farrelly, the director suggested the actor come up with something himself. The result was something resembling a Calabrian dialect with Italian expressions, as in diasporas where people from various regions of Italy live. Mortensen also tried to make it sound old-fashioned, as the slang and pronunciation of the family members hadn't changed since the arrival of the fathers of Venere and Vallelonga in the USA. All of this was well known to Mortensen himself. Once, upon returning from Argentina where he grew up, Viggo discovered that no one in New York spoke the way he did.
- When Don first gets into the car, a poster appears in the frame advertising a folk music concert at Carnegie Hall on November 10, 1962. Pete Seeger (1919-2014) headlined the concert. This was Bob Dylan’s first performance at “Carnegie Hall.”
- The prototype for Viggo Mortensen's character is Tony Lip.
- With the exception of one day when filming took place in New York, the entire film was shot in the state of Louisiana. The scene where Tony stops the car to look into the restroom, and the views of New York, were filmed on the same day.
- Viggo Mortensen's character usually wears red or blue striped shirts. This is a tribute to the colors of the actor's favorite football team, San Lorenzo de Almagro.
- To prepare for the role, Viggo Mortensen gained almost 10 kg (22 lbs) in weight.
- To gain weight for the film, Viggo Mortensen switched to Italian cuisine. As the actor himself said: “I often ate pizza. The most important thing, however, was not to refuse a second helping. It was also important to be sure to try all the desserts. And, of course, you had to eat right before bed.”
- Viggo Mortensen had to eat so much as part of the plot that, according to his own admission, he didn't touch the food brought for the actors and crew at all. The actor preferred to spend his lunch break in his trailer, lying down with his belt unbuckled.
- Tony Bolten did indeed hit a police officer and ended up in jail with Don Shirley. In reality, however, this happened in the fall of 1963, a year later than depicted in the film. It occurred during a different trip, but Shirley genuinely called the then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy (1925-1968), who ordered their release from custody. This happened a few days before the assassination in Dallas of the brother of the Attorney General, the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy (1917-1963).
- In the scene with Gorman, Viggo Mortensen was actually eating hot dogs. He was given a bucket to spit out the unswallowed pieces between takes, but the actor found that even less palatable than the hot dogs themselves. Mortensen ate a total of 15 of them.
- Chris Bowers, who stood in for Mahershala Ali at the piano, has been making music since the age of four, but "Green Book" was the first film for which he wrote music. Like the character played by Ali, Bowers only plays a handmade Steinway piano, because "no other instruments produce a real sound."
- The film's title alludes to “The Negro Motorist Green Book” – an annual guide published between 1936 and 1966. The publication period coincided with the era of Jim Crow laws (an informal name for laws on racial segregation in some states between 1890 and 1964), when discrimination against people of color was widely legally accepted in society. “The Green Book” allowed traveling Black people to find lodging, services, and gas stations that they could use.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
