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Trivia / The Truman Show

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  • Completely Different Title: In Hong Kong, the title is interpreted as a Pun-Based Title for "Tru(e) (Hu)man Show", and translated that way into Janyan Show (The Real-person Show). This title eventually became the generic term for the Reality TV genre.
  • Creator-Chosen Casting: Peter Weir cast Jim Carrey after seeing Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, because his performance reminded him of Charlie Chaplin.
  • Dawson Casting: The actors all portray their high-school/college-aged selves during a flashback, and with Truman himself, who'd be 29 as he's lived over 10,900 days whereas Jim Carrey was in his mid-30s when making this movie.
  • Dueling Movies:
    • With Ed TV. Although fundamentally different to anyone who's seen both, the two were widely compared at the time due to their close release dates and (at the time, very unique) plots about a guy whose life is turned into a television show. The main difference: Truman's was set up before he was born, with actors playing the roles of family and friends, and Truman didn't know about any of it. Ed's was set up in his thirties (at his volunteering), involved all his real friends and family, and was completely in the open. Both were visibly prescient about (and arguably semi-responsible for) the forthcoming rise of reality television, with Truman being the groundbreaking speculative conclusion and Ed the more true-to-life concept.... for now.
    • This film also dueled with Pleasantville. Both movies presented idealized, televised (or from television) worlds juxtaposed against the cynicism of "reality", with its characters coming to the realization that they would trade their utopia for a more fulfilling, expansive world, even if it's not perfect.
  • Executive Meddling: The executives at Paramount wanted to emphasize Jim Carrey's wacky antics more, but one suggestion crossed straight into Comically Missing the Point by asking about Product Placement opportunities.
    Weir: I just asked him if he'd read the script.
  • Friendship on the Set: Jim Carrey and Noah Emmerich hit it off during filming and have stayed friends in the years since. Carrey has even refrred to Emmerich as his best friend.
  • Harpo Does Something Funny: Jim Carrey improvised the scene where he draws on the mirror with soap.
  • Life Imitates Art:
    • Jim Carrey has since acknowledged this film as an accurate metaphor for the fatigue he was feeling from his own stardom, which is one reason he lost himself in more-than-Method Acting on the set of his next star vehicle, Man on the Moon (which could be seen as the conceptual inversion of this film, as it is about a performance artist whose whimsical behavior has everyone else questioning what is and isn't real).
    • In 2003, The Joe Schmo Show premiered—a reality show parody in which all but one of the "contestants" was an actor, which inevitably drew comparisons to Truman. Of course, much unlike the movie, the showrunners always planned on revealing the hoax to the real contestant in the final episode—if they didn't already suspect it beforehand.
    • There is also, of course, the aptly named Truman Show delusion.
  • The Other Marty: Dennis Hopper had originally been cast as Christof, but Peter Weir said that, while Hopper is a great actor, the performance simply wasn't working out.
  • Playing Against Type: Although Jim Carrey is still rather whimsical here, it is played for Bathos and to contrast his tragic situation.
  • Playing with Character Type: Carrey's over-the-top zany charm is on full display in many scenes, but it's done to show how Truman uses the persona to hide his loneliness and longing for escape.
  • Referenced by...:
    • Sword Art Online of all things. One of the characters all but calls the movie out by name during a discussion over the difficulties of replicating modern society in a fictional medium.
    • Truman stars in an episode of Freshy Kanal's Rap Battle series against the Red Guy from Don't Hug Me I'm Scared.
  • Rereleased for Free: Was temporarily available for free with ads on YouTube.
  • Theme Naming: All the other characters in Seahaven whose names we learn share them with actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood.
  • Throw It In!: The twins, Ron and Don, aren't even really actors. They were just police officers who worked at the set, and they had such a great rapport with the actors that Peter Weir gave them a small part.
  • Tom Hanks Syndrome: Jim Carrey's first chance to really dip his toe into more serious material as an A-lister.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Though the original script contains many scenes that made it to the final movie, its tone was much Darker and Edgier, reading more like a sci-fi thriller and set in (a fake version of) New York — for example, the scene where Truman threatens Meryl is much more violent, to the point where he actually tries to drown her in a sliced-open waterbed. He hires a prostitute to dress up as Sylvia, and has sex with her, cheating on his wife. He also threatens to kill a baby at one point (by holding it above his head and threatening to smash it on the ground) and threatens a man with a flare gun (all things considered, probably for the best that it was altered).
    • The Reality Show premise was initially played as a third-act Plot Twist.
    • Brian De Palma was under negotiations to direct before he left United Talent Agency. Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg were all considered to direct. Bryan Singer was interested, but the studio wanted someone more experienced.
    • Andrew Niccol was going to direct with Gary Oldman as Truman and Dennis Hopper as Cristof (Ed Harris was the last-minute replacement). Robin Williams was also considered for Truman.
    • Truman was also supposed to be just out of high school, but since Carrey was in his thirties, it got swapped from teenaged angst to more of a midlife crisis.
    • A scene in the original script depicts a staged rape scene witnessed by Truman, who doesn't go to help the actress about to be violated and just moves on. When he's gone, the actors and actress return to normal and express wonder at how he didn't try to help, or even do anything about it.
    • Also in the script, "Fiji" was to have existed within the same space as the nuclear power plant, complete with just about every Polynesian cliché imaginable. Indeed, Truman was to have been drawn to the sounds of hammers and saws during the construction of the set.
    • The first draft of the script had Sydney standing in for Fiji, and Christof researching a potential trip for Truman a la the Mount Rushmore vacation.
    • Several deleted scenes make it clear that Louis (Marlon) truly does care about Truman and gives him a moment of redemption where he finds him during the search and lets him go.
    • Ed Harris had an idea of making Christof a hunchback, but Peter Weir did not like the idea.
    • Sam Raimi was considered to direct and even met with Jim Carrey.
  • Word of God: Extra material offered by the writers reveals that Christof was an acclaimed filmmaker who won an Oscar in his 20s for a documentary on the homeless. He created The Truman Show soon after. This emphasizes what he's trying to say in the main page "What the Hell, Hero?" quote — he really has tried to give Truman the perfect All-American life, sheltered from the cruelty and absurdity of the real world.
  • You Look Familiar:
    • In-Universe. A major piece of the plot that drives Truman's longing to escape the staged world is noticing that a homeless beggar has an uncanny resemblance to his father who drowned during his childhood. He is quickly whisked away by the crew when Truman lingers too long around him.
    • In a Deleted Scene, Truman runs into a jogger played by the same actor who played a homeless man in a wheelchair two days earlier.

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