Trivia / Hoffa

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $35 million. Box office, $29,302,121.
• California Doubling: Much of the film was shot in and around Pittsburgh, which is noticeable late in the film (in a scene ostensibly set outside Detroit) when unchanged highway signs to Pittsburgh neighborhoods can be spotted in the background.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Jack Nicholson named this as one of his favourite performances.
• Real-Life Relative: Jack Nicholson's daughter plays the young nun in the hospital scene where Billy Flynn is dying from his burns. According to Danny DeVito in the DVD Commentary, Nicholson had asked him to give his daughter a small role. At first, DeVito suggested she play the hooker in his hotel room in a later scene, drawing the trademark raised eyebrow from Nicholson. Since DeVito was joking he, of course, relented and cast her as a nun.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Nicholson strongly resembled Hoffa to the point that he needed very little makeup for the role - mainly a fake nose and some false teeth - to portray Hoffa. At one point during filming the real Hoffa's son was brought to tears after visiting the set and seeing Nicholson made up as his father, saying "That's my dad".
• What Could Have Been:
  • Barry Levinson was the forerunner to direct, but left when David Mamet refused to make script changes. John McTiernan and Oliver Stone were also considered.
  • Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Kevin Spacey auditioned to play Jimmy Hoffa. Pacino finally got to play him in The Irishman, opposite De Niro.

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