Trivia / Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song

• Copiously Credited Creator: Melvin Van Peebles was the star, the director, the co-producer, the writer, the editor, the composer, and the stuntman.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Melvin Van Peebles went through terrible things to finish the movie. To the point that he contracted gonorrhea while shooting an unsimulated sex scene with a prostitute... and spent the DGA workman's compensation in film reels!
• No Stunt Double: Because Melvin Van Peebles couldn't afford a stuntman, he performed all of the stunts himself, which also included appearing in several unstimulated sex scenes. At one point in the shoot, Van Peebles was forced to jump off a bridge. Bob Maxwell later stated, "Well, that's great, Mel, but let's do it again." Van Peebles ended up performing the stunt nine times.
• Playing Against Type: A behind-the-scenes example; for a film with unsimulated sex scenes, dirty police officers being killed, and other such things, you may be very surprised to learn that this movie was financed with a $50,000.00 loan from America's then-Favorite Dad, Bill Cosby!
• Real-Life Relative: Melvin Van Peebles's son Mario Van Peebles plays Sweetback AKA: Leroy at 13 in the opening scene.
• Throw It In!: Melvin Van Peebles obtained a permit to set a car on fire for a scene he wanted to shoot that weekend. Unfortunately, he got the permit on a Friday, and the city hadn't filed it by the time shooting was scheduled. He did the scene anyway, and when the fire department showed up, he filmed it and left it in the finished movie.

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