Trivia / Benny & Joon

• Breakaway Pop Hit:
  • "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers. It had been released a few years prior on their album Sunshine On Leith, but it didn't become popular until after Mary Stuart Masterson, a fan of the band, insisted it be used.
  • To a lesser extent, "Have A Little Faith In Me" by John Haitt.
• The Cast Showoff: Mary Stuart Masterson did a lot of the paintings herself.
• Deleted Scene: In addition to the ironed grilled cheese sandwiches and the tennis racket mashed potatoes, there was a scene where Sam made crab in the dishwasher. It was cut for time.
• Enforced Method Acting: In order to make it seem as if he is an inexperienced writer, Johnny Depp used his left hand in the writing sequence. Being right handed himself, using his left hand gave off the squiggly impressions of a child's writing.
• No Stunt Double: Johnny Depp did all of the stunts for the physical comedy sequence in the park himself.
• Throw It In!: Sam tasting the paint was totally improvised by Johnny Depp.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In the original script, Joon burned the house down toward the end of the movie.
  • Benny's character was originally scripted to be a New York psychiatrist.
  • Originally in the script, Sam was supposed to leave dried flowers on the porch after Joon threw him out. An hour before shooting the scene, Jeremiah S. Chechik changed it to Sam leaving the Jack In The Box instead.
  • Winona Ryder was set to play Joon, and at the time was dating Johnny Depp. Ryder dropped out of the project upon her break-up with Depp.
  • The first choices for the leads were Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, followed by Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. Eventually, MGM had their dream casting in place: Johnny Depp, Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern. Harrelson's contract would have given him top billing. When Dern (a recent Academy Award nominee) found out that she would be third billed, she quit the picture. Harrelson followed soon after, having landed the young male lead in Indecent Proposal. MGM promptly slapped him with a five million dollar lawsuit for breach of contract (which was ultimately settled out of court).

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