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Trivia / American Sniper

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  • California Doubling: For Iraq, and Texas. An abandoned milk factory was used for scenes set in Fallujah.
  • Cast the Expert: Kevin Lacz, who knew Chris Kyle personally, plays as himself under his nickname "Dauber".
  • Dyeing for Your Art:
    • Cooper gained 40 pounds for his role as Chris Kyle.
    • Sienna Miller, a natural blonde, literally dyed her hair to become a brunette.
  • Executive Meddling: Eastwood has been quite vocal about how the film was taken out of his hands, and he wanted it to be much more explicitly anti-war and questioning of Kyle's actions.
  • Fake American: Sienna Miller is English—though she is New York-born.
  • Fake Nationality: "The Butcher" (Iraqi) and "Mustafa" (Syrian) are played by Egyptian actors Mido Hamada and Sammy Sheik.
  • I Am Not Spock: Unlike Chris Kyle, who was a conservative American, Bradley Cooper is a longtime liberal and supporter of the Democratic Party, so conservative Americans were shocked and dismayed when they learned he attended the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
  • Sleeper Hit: While the film was expected to have a solid run, it made a January-record $89 million and finished up with $350m domestic — the biggest hit of 2014note  — and $547m worldwide, nearly 10x its budget.
  • Star-Making Role: Sienna Miller has been famous for a long time in her native UK, but this is the role that made her a star in the U.S, after a couple of false starts previously.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • David O. Russell and Steven Spielberg were both attached to direct at one point. Spielberg ended up dropping out because his version (which would have focused more on the parallels between Kyle and the Iraqi sniper) ended up being too expensive.
    • Bradley Cooper originally just wanted to help produce the film, and he actually wanted Chris Pratt to play Chris Kyle.
    • Jaimie Alexander, Evangeline Lilly and Kate Mara were considered for Tara Kyle.
    • Chris Jericho was invited by Clint Eastwood to audition for a role and even though he didn't get it, he was incredibly flattered by the fact that he was invited by Eastwood himself.

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