Trivia / Fatal Attraction

• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: "I'm not going to be ignored, Dan!" is an interesting case: in most parodies, the words are right, but the delivery is quite different. Glenn Close says the line with amused disbelief rather than an Ax-Crazy screech.
• Blooper: At the end of the movie, as Dan is talking to the cops outside, the front door of the house is clearly open. Dan shakes hands with the cop, turns to walk up the walkway... cut to inside of the house where Beth is waiting as Dan opens the now closed door.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Glenn Close was so angry over plans to reshoot the ending that for two weeks, she refused to do it. To this day, she prefers the original version, feeling that Alex was more suicidal than psychotic. Adrian Lyne wasn't keen on having to redo it either and presumably wouldn't have had test audiences not hated it.
  • Close also felt that her portrayal of Alex Forrest perpetuated stigmas against mental illness, particularly the misconception that people with Borderline Personality Disorder are violent towards others. Noting most people with mental illness aren't violent. ^note People with BPD are more likely to hurt themselves than other people. Ironically, she would later create the organization "Bring Change 2 Mind", which is devoted to de-stigmatizing mental illness.
• The Danza: Ellen Gallagher is played by child actress Ellen Hamilton Latzen.
• Dawson Casting: Alex states her age as 36, but Glenn Close was 40 during filming.
• Diagnosis of God: In a Word of Saint Paul example, Glenn Close stated that she regards Alex Forrest as having borderline personality disorder.
• Enforced Method Acting: Adrian Lyne got Ellen's tearful reaction upon watching her parents argue by bullying the actress and threatening to take away her stuffed animal (that's why she's clutching it). Once the scene was complete, he assured her he was only kidding, and Douglas comforted her with a hug.
• Focus Group Ending: The original ending (which is shown in the Japanese version and included in the supplements of the US and UK letterboxed Laserdiscs) Alex committing suicide and making it look like Dan murdered her. Beth then finds Alex's note on tape that reveals the whole thing was a suicide and goes to the police about it. American test audiences thought this wasn't a good enough punishment for the antagonist, so the ending was changed to Dan killing Alex by drowning her in the tub, but Alex doesn't stay dead — at least until Dan's wife shoots her. The original suicide ending has been shown in Japan.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: Initial scripts were of something more akin to a horror movie.
• Playing Against Type: Up to this point in her career, Glenn Close had played warm, fuzzy, earth-mother women—indeed, she was actually dismissed as a candidate for the role because of this—and been nominated for Oscars three times. This was a radical change—so radical, in fact, that she got stuck playing similar characters for a while.
• Real-Life Relative: Adrian Lyne's daughter Amy Lyne appears as a party guest. Also their first names start with the same letter.
• Similarly Named Works: This is also the name of a True Crime series, featuring people who ended up the victim in some version of A Deadly Affair.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kirstie Alley, Rosanna Arquette, Christine Baranski, Ellen Barkin, Kim Basinger, Jennifer Beals, Candice Bergen, Kate Capshaw, Stockard Channing, Cher, Jamie Lee Curtis, Beverly D'Angelo, Geena Davis, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow, Farrah Fawcett, Sally Field, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Grey, Melanie Griffith, Linda Hamilton, Daryl Hannah, Goldie Hawn, Holly Hunter, Anjelica Huston, Amy Irving, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Madonna, Bette Midler, Demi Moore, Olivia Newton-John, Catherine O'Hara, Annette O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, Annie Potts, Kelly Preston, Gilda Radner, Miranda Richardson, Mimi Rogers, Isabella Rossellini, Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Jane Seymour (Actress), Cybill Shepherd, Helen Slater, Elisabeth Shue, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Sharon Stone (!), Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver, Raquel Welch and Debra Winger were all considered for the role of Alex Forrest.
    • Miranda Richardson specifically turned down the role because she found the script sexist.
  • Dan Aykroyd, James Belushi, Nicolas Cage, Chevy Chase, Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, John Heard, Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, Al Pacino, Dennis Quaid, Christopher Reeve, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Martin Sheen, O. J. Simpson, Sylvester Stallone, John Travolta, Jon Voight, and Bruce Willis were all considered for the role of Dan Gallagher.
  • Bonnie Bedelia, Andie MacDowell and Cynthia Rhodes were considered for the role of Beth Gallagher.
  • John Carpenter and Brian De Palma were offered the chance to direct but both backed out because they feared that the story was too similar to Play Misty for Me. De Palma also felt that Michael Douglas was not a good leading man, but has since admitted he was wrong about Douglas. Carpenter also turned it down because he felt the audience would not accept the originally scripted, downbeat ending. John Boorman was also offered the director's job but turned it down to do his personal wartime childhood memoir Hope and Glory.
• Working Title: Affairs of the Heart, Diversion, Lethal Attraction.

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