Trivia / The Specialist

• Breakaway Pop Hit: Two of them. "Turn the Beat Around", covered by Gloria Estefan for this film, remains one of her highest-selling singles. The other, Jon Secada's "Mental Picture", went to #29 on the Hot 100 and #10 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Not as successful as his other hits, but still notable.
• Dawson Casting: Sharon Stone was 36 when this movie was filmed, although her character May was supposed to be in her early 20's. In fact, Eric Roberts is only two years older than her, and his character is supposed to have killed her parents while she was a child.
• Dueling-Stars Movie: Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • When it came to filming the shower scene, Sharon Stone started hyperventilating because she was sick of doing nude scenes. Sylvester Stallone had her drink a bottle of Black Death vodka and "after half a dozen shots, we were wet and wild".
  • Sharon Stone wasn't used to explosions going off around her at the time and her reactions are genuine.
• Fake Nationality: The Leons are supposed to be Hispanic. Not exactly something that may be noticed considering they are played by Eric Roberts and Rod Steiger.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer shows a few extra shots and additional lines from some scenes, including two shots with more dialogue from Trent and a shot of May slapping Joe in the face when Trent brings her to him.
• Stillborn Franchise: The film did not lead to other adaptations of the Specialist novels.
• Wag the Director: Sylvester Stallone demanded for some of James Woods' scenes to be cut out of the movie and for some of his scenes to be re-shot in order for Stallone to have more screen time. The reason for that was because Stallone was worried that Woods would "steal" the movie away because he was a better actor than him.
• What Could Have Been:
  • David Fincher was set to direct this at one stage. Sylvester Stallone liked Fincher but he was overruled by the producers, because Fincher's career was still in deep freeze after the failure of Alien³.
  • Steven Seagal was offered the chance to star and direct this film, but he wanted $9 million. The studio didn't want to pay Seagal that much, and offered it to Sylvester Stallone instead.
  • In his autobiography, A Bientot, Roger Moore stated that he was offered a part in the film (presumably, playing the role which eventually went to Rod Steiger), but turned it down. He stated later in the book that once he saw the finished product, he was "glad" he didn't take the part.

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