Trivia / Risky Business

• Colbert Bump: Sales of Ray Ban Wayfarers doubled after seeing Tom Cruise wear them in the movie.
• Completely Different Title: In some Asian territories this was released as Dangerous Youth.
• Dawson Casting: Joel and his high school friends are all played by actors in their early-to-mid 20s.
• Dyeing for Your Art: In an effort for Tom Cruise to look more "teenage" in appearance, the producers put him though an unusual bit of physical training. Cruise worked out seven days a week, in order to lose ten pounds. Once that had been accomplished, he immediately ceased working out and ate extremely fatty foods in order to add a layer of baby fat. This is how he achieved that "fresh-faced" teenage look.
• Focus Group Ending: Much like Pretty Woman, the movie was originally meant to be a Darker and Edgier exploration of prostitution, with Joel getting denied admission to Princeton and probably breaking up with Lana. The studio wanted a feel-good ending, and it was agreed to let a test audience decide which way the movie would end.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: The dance scene where Joel dances to "Old Time Rock N' Roll" was completely improvised. In the script Tom Cruise was simply instructed to "dance to rock music".
• Hostility on the Set: In an interview with The A.V. Club, Bronson Pinchot described working with Tom Cruise as "weird" and called him "the biggest bore on the face of the Earth." He said that his strongest memory of Cruise was that "he was tense and made constant, constant unrelated homophobic comments, like, 'You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?' I mean, his lingo was larded with the most...there was no basis for it. It was like, 'It's a nice day, I'm glad there are no gay people standing here.' Very, very strange."
• Romance on the Set: Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay lived together for two and a half years after meeting on the set.
• Star-Making Role: For Tom Cruise, definitely. To a lesser but still successful extent Rebecca De Mornay. The movie also established solid character role careers for Joe Pantoliano and Curtis Armstrong. Bronson Pinchot might point to Beverly Hills Cop for his career break, though...
• Throw It In!: The face Joel makes after saying "Looks like University of Illinois!" was improvised by Tom Cruise. Paul Brickman loved the facial expression that he kept it in the film.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Michael J. Fox, Tom Hanks, Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn all tried out for Joel.
  • In the DVD Commentary, Diane Lane says that Tom Cruise got the script for the film while shooting The Outsiders and had asked her to audition for the role of Lana. Her father later told the producers there was "no way his daughter was playing a twenty-something hooker". Kim Basinger turned down the role because she didn't like the script and Sharon Stone also auditioned.
  • Frank Sinatra was considered for the role of Guido, but was deemed "too serious" for the role. Richard Dreyfuss was also considered.
• Working Title: White Boys off the Lake. The studio felt this sounded too much like an off-Broadway play.

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