Trivia / A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

• Ability over Appearance:
  • A curious case. When casting the younger Laurie, Dito Montiel was torn between Melonie Diaz and another actress who resembled Rosario Dawson much more. He chose to cast Melonie because she had better chemistry with Shia LaBeouf, and was the strongest one who auditioned. After the film he claims people came up to say how alike they looked.
  • Channing Tatum was nearly rejected for being too good looking to play Antonio - who Dito Montiel described as a "messed-up, wiry haired terror with a messed-up face". But he won them over with his tortured, longing portrayal.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • The real Laurie was white but becomes Puerto Rican to accommodate Rosario Dawson.
  • As noted elsewhere, Mike was Irish in real life. But they made him Scottish for Martin Compston.
• Approval of God: The real Giuseppe apparently loved the idea of being killed off in the film.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Eleonore Hendricks was the original choice for the young Laurie. But when Rosario Dawson wanted to play the adult version, the difference in race meant that they had to re-cast her with Melonie Diaz. They then created the character of Jenny, one of Laurie's friends, and cast Eleonore to make up for it.
• Dawson Casting: Channing Tatum was twenty-six playing a character who is in his early twenties at the oldest. Shia LaBeouf, Melonie Diaz, Martin Compston and Eleonore Hendricks were all in their early twenties playing teens. Robert Downey Jr. was also forty-one playing Dito when he was in his early thirties. Likewise Eric Roberts was in his early fifties playing Antonio in his thirties.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Channing Tatum claims he lost "a lot of weight" to play Antonio.
  • Adam Scarimbolo had to gain weight for a previous role, and hurriedly went on "a crash diet" to lose weight for Giuseppe's nude scene.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Shia LaBeouf and Channing Tatum decided to bond by doing this. They got drunk one night and ran around New York, eventually smashing a window and punching a cop car.
  • The steps where Dito and Flori have their big conversation is actually where the real Antonio lived in Astoria.
  • Subverted with Guiseppe's death scene on the train tracks. Adam Scarimbolo said he'd touch the third rail on the train tracks if the director wanted. Dito responded if he did, he'd be electrocuted.
• Fake Scot: Averted. Martin Compston is Scottish like his character. Ironically the real Mike was Irish.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: The younger actors were encouraged to improvise in their scenes together, to allow for more naturalistic moments.
• Method Acting: Anthony DeSando opted to meet the real Frank to prepare for his role. He spent three days with him, without Dito Montiel knowing, and shocked everyone with how accurately he recreated Frank's mannerisms.
• No Budget: Made for around $2.4 million.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Shia LaBeouf especially, having just come from Even Stevens and Holes. He had to especially fight for the role, as the director rejected him for being "a Disney kid". He apparently did this by punching a hole in the director's office wall.
  • Retroactively for Channing Tatum. He would later become typecast as either stoic meatheads or lovable Dumb Muscle types. Here he's a Jerkass Woobie who gets into fights, curses a lot and eventually murders someone with a bat.
• Reality Subtext: Dito Montiel joked that all his now grown up friends would be hanging around on the set of the various scenes, telling all the actors "I never would have said that."
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The train scene was scripted to have Giuseppe riding around on top of it as he got killed. Due to insurance reasons, it was changed to sitting on the tracks instead.
• Throw It In!:
  • The sequence with each of the characters breaking the fourth wall was unscripted. Channing Tatum was one day asking about what Antonio thought of himself. Dito said that he used to mutter "I'm a piece of shit" all the time, and then decided to have him say that on camera. After realising it looked good, he had the other characters do it too.
  • In the scene where Monti has a seizure, Channing Tatum got so into character that he threw a table through the window. The director loved it and left it in. As a result, Dianne Wiest looking at him in shock is genuine (as her feet had got cut by the broken glass).
  • The deadened, tragic look in Giuseppe's eyes right before he's hit by the train was improvised by Adam Scarimbolo. Dito Montiel had written it so that Giuseppe was just joking the whole time and only died by accident. Adam however played it as Giuseppe committing suicide after he realises Antonio doesn't love him.
  • Nerf's role in the present day portions was meant to be just a supportive friend, matching his real-life counterpart. But Dito Montiel ran into another old friend who talked about his mother trying to hide from him on the street, and was inspired to add that into the scene with Nerf and Dito in the car.
  "That night my character Nerf went from just simply being an old friend talking with actor Robert Downey Jr. in a scene to a guy battling some demons, rambling on..."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Robert Downey Jr. considered directing the film himself, and the project was greenlit as his directorial debut. But he became busy with lots of other projects, and eventually Dito Montiel decided to direct. Downey stayed on as a producer.
  • At one point, Dito Montiel had ideas of hiring an Amateur Cast comprised of teens he'd found walking around in Astoria. After seven open casting calls, he was convinced to let more experienced actors audition. As noted above, Shia Le Beouf had to really fight for the role.
  • The scene between Dito and Monti right before the former runs away from home was first written with no dialogue at all. Upon being told that was a cop out, Dito Montiel rewrote it to have dialogue, and later said it was his favourite scene in the film.
  • When he heard that the real Antonio had actually briefly escaped from prison, Downey really wanted to put that into the film. They ended up leaving it out due to pacing reasons.
  • The sequence where all the characters break the fourth wall was planned for the end of the film, and was going to be set to "New York Groove" by KISS. It was then moved to the middle of the film and the song changed to Cat Stevens' "Trouble". "New York Groove" was played over an end-credits sequence.

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