Million Dollar Baby
Short description
Frankie Dunn runs a boxing gym in Los Angeles with help from his friend Scrap, a former fighter. Estranged from his daughter, who does not answer his letters, Frankie keeps his distance from others and has seen his best boxer leave for another manager. Into this settled life comes Maggie Fitzgerald, a thirty-one-year-old waitress who wants to box and needs someone to train her. Frankie refuses at first, saying she is too old and that he does not work with women, but her persistence at the gym eventually changes his mind, and the two begin a partnership that becomes something closer to family.
Clint Eastwood directed and stars as Frankie, with Hilary Swank as Maggie and Morgan Freeman as Scrap. Paul Haggis wrote the screenplay, and Eastwood produced alongside Haggis and Tom Rosenberg. Released in 2004, it was Eastwood's twenty-fifth film as director, following Mystic River and preceding Letters from Iwo Jima. The credited cast runs to sixty-five people and the crew to just over a hundred.
Made for about 30 million dollars, the film took roughly 217 million dollars worldwide, a strong return. On IMDb it holds 8.1 out of 10 from some 763,000 votes, and on TMDB 8 out of 10 from around 10,600. A critics' rating of 8.7 out of 10 from 268 reviews places it ahead of both audience scores, indicating that professional reviewers responded to it at least as warmly as the public did.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's original title is a phrase used by Sonny Liston before his fight with Muhammad Ali.
- Hilary Swank took her preparation for filming very seriously. Over several months of training, she gained about 9 kg of muscle mass without the use of steroids. Lucia Rijker, a world boxing and kickboxing champion, was the actress's main trainer.
- Filming lasted only 37 days, although 39 days were originally scheduled.
- Clint Eastwood was the only nominee at the 2005 Oscars who played a fictional character. All other nominees starred in biopics.
- Filming took place from June 7 to July 14, 2004.
- Clint's daughter, Morgan Eastwood, received a cameo role in the film.
- Upon receiving the script, Clint Eastwood did not make any changes to it and filmed the entire movie based on the original screenplay.
- A book titled "Burning Ropes: Stories from Ringside" was published in 2000 by an author under the pseudonym F. X. Toole. It is a collection of stories based on the activities of Jerry Boyd, a famous boxing promoter. By the time the book was published, he was 70 years old, and the resulting work of fiction included stories spanning a period of 40 years. Jerry passed away on September 2, 2002.
- Angelica Huston brought the book to producer Albert S. Ruddy, hoping to spark his interest and secure the rights to produce a film. Albert was particularly struck by the story of "The Million Dollar Baby," and confessed that he couldn't hold back tears while reading it. By the time Albert had sorted out the copyright issues, Huston was already committed to another project, so Albert invited Clint Eastwood.
- Sandra Bullock was one of the first candidates for the role of Maggie, and she expressed a desire to work only with director Shekhar Kapur. However, work on a sequel to "Miss Congeniality" soon began, and Sandra chose that project instead.
- During pre-production, Hilary Swank contracted staphylococcus, and her entire leg became covered in purulent sores. The infection was so severe that she required three weeks of hospitalization.
- The poem by William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939), a key figure of the Irish Renaissance, from which Frank Dunn reads to his ward in the hospital, is titled "The Lake Isle of Innisfree".
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
