Trivia / Alpha Dog

• Actor-Shared Background: Partial example; Ben Foster had a friend who had been addicted to crystal meth, and said friend introduced him to people who gave him an all-access pass into the lifestyle.
• All-Star Cast: Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone, Ben Foster, Justin Timberlake, Emile Hirsch, Shawn Hatosy, Anton Yelchin, Harry Dean Stanton, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, and Vincent Kartheiser all star in the movie.
• Beauty Inversion: Sharon Stone appears in a fatsuit towards the end of the film.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Ben Foster risked losing his eyesight by adding glaucoma drops to his eyes so his pupils would appear dilated.
• Enforced Method Acting: Ben Foster told Sharon Stone to really hit him during their fight. She hit him so hard, his nose started bleeding. The take is used in the finished film.
• Executive Meddling: Subverted. New Line Cinema (who previously released The Notebook and John Q. for writer-director Nick Cassavetes) was tapped to release the film, but they requested some edits that Cassavetes didn't want to make. So the film was sold to Universal, who delayed the film for a year, but released it intact.
• Playing Against Type: Justin Timberlake, in the process of trying to shake off his teen heartthrob image from his N*Sync years, plays a violent gang member and eventual murderer.
• Production Posse: Of a sort. Shawn Hatosy (Elvis), Heather Wahlquist (Wanda) and David Thorton (Zack and Jake's dad) all previously worked with director Nick Cassavetes in John Q.
• Reality Subtext: The film opens with actual home videos of some of the cast as children.
• Those Two Actors:
  • Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried, Olivia Wilde, and Vincent Kartheiser would later star in In Time.
  • Emile Hirsch, Chris Marquette and Olivia Wilde all appeared in The Girl Next Door.
  • Emile Hirsch and Ben Foster play enemies in this, and best friends in Lone Survivor.
  • Ben Foster had worked with Bruce Willis in Hostage.
• Throw It In!: When Wanda screams "Heil!" in Jake's apartment, everything that followed was unscripted. The cast just went along with it, improvised and Cassavetes kept it in the film.