Trivia / Valmont

• Acclaimed Flop: It got decent reviews, but bombed hard enough to not exit out of limited run.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $33 million. Box office, $1,132,112.
• Contractual Purity: This marked the transition between child actress Fairuza Balk who was known for Return to Oz and The Worst Witch, and rebellious Fairuza who stars in The Craft and American History X. She even called it her first "semi-adult" role in an interview with the LA Times.
• Creator Killer: Miloš Forman would not work again until The People vs. Larry Flynt in 1996.
• Darkhorse Casting: Colin Firth and Annette Bening were both at the beginning of their film careers and unknown to a wider audience at that time.
• Production Posse: The film represented a reteaming of several of the cast and crew of Amadeus: Miloš Forman, producer/executive producer Michael Hausman, Jeffrey Jones, Vincent Schiavelli, cinematographer Miroslav Ondrícek costume designer Theodor Pistek, musical conductor Neville Marriner, makeup designer Paul Le Blanc and editor Nena Danevic. Tilly was originally cast to play Constanze in that film but was forced to withdraw right before filming started due to an injury.
• Romance on the Set: Meg Tilly and Colin Firth fell in love while they were making the film. A year later they had a son together.
• Starmaking Role: Annette Bening earned some Best New Artist awards for her performance specifically for this film, even though she also made waves in the same year's The Grifters.
• Unbuilt Casting Type: Before Colin Firth would become known as the sweet English gentleman, here he's playing someone who puts on that façade (although he's technically French) - and his seduction is a deliberate attempt to Corrupt the Cutie.
• What Could Have Been:
  • David Duchovny and Richard E. Grant were considered for Valmont.
  • Michelle Pfeiffer was offered the role of the Marquise de Merteuil at the same time she was offered the role as Madame de Tourvel in Dangerous Liaisons. Kim Basinger auditioned for the role.
  • Wil Wheaton was originally chosen to play Danceny, but the producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation would not release him from his commitments, and the role went to Henry Thomas.
  • Marcia Gay Harden auditioned for the role of Merteuil.

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