Trivia / Foxcatcher

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• Acclaimed Flop: Made only $19 million against a $24 million budget, but got heaped with praise and earned five Oscar nominations.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $24 million. Box office, $19.2 million.
• Creator Killer: Possibly due to this movie bombing, Bennett Miller went under the radar and hasn't directed anything since.
• Dawson Casting: The two brothers were only sixteen months apart in age, but there is a thirteen year difference between Mark Ruffalo and Channing Tatum.
• Disowned Adaptation: Zig-zagged. The real Mark Schultz has gone from praising the movie as a masterpiece to deriding it as inaccurate and threatening to ruin Bennett Miller's career, to praising it again, calling Miller one of the best directors of all time and saying Channing Tatum was robbed of an Oscar nomination. The reason for this seems to be the subtext that suggests that John du Pont lusted after Mark Schultz.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Mark Ruffalo gained thirty pounds for the role, and he and Channing Tatum did intense wrestling practice every day after work. They were so exhausted by the end of the shoot that they cried after their final practice.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • Steve Carell remained serious between takes and didn't socialise with anyone after work. The cast and crew were so intimidated by him in the make-up that they avoided him for most of the shoot.
    • During the filming of a particularly dark scene, Miller made Carell write down the thing he hates most about himself, put it in his pocket and do the scene, with him being told "Just have it right there, and know that it's in a place where, if I was a dick, I could just grab it."
  • Channing Tatum told Mark Ruffalo to hit him for real during the hotel room scene. Ruffalo ended up popping his ear drum, and the take is used in the finished film.
  • The real Nancy Schultz was on set for the scene where John shoots Dave, watching Sienna Miller's performance.
• Fake American: Brits Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller play the Americans Jean Du Pont and Nancy Schulz respectively.
• Playing with Character Type:
  • Steve Carell plays an emotionally-stunted Manchild from a Friendless Background with a desperate need for praise, much like Michael Scott. Here, its's played for drama and makes him come off as disturbing and creepy.
  • This is one of Channing Tatum's first serious dramatic roles (he's most well-known as a teen idol and comic actor), and the film is an assured He Really Can Act moment for him. Overlaps with Playing with Character Type, as he plays his typical Dumb Muscle image for drama instead of laughs.
• Reality Subtext: Mark is seen watching MMA fighter Gary Goodridge in a scene. He would later make his MMA debut in a match against Goodridge.
• The Shelf of Movie Languishment: This was filmed in 2012 but spent some time on the shelf as Sony didn't like its chances in the 2013 Oscar race.
• Throw It In!:
  • Channing Tatum actually got so into the scene where Mark throws a tantrum in the hotel room that he actually broke the mirror. The cut on his head is real.
  • Steve Carell and Channing Tatum ad-libbed all their dialogue in the helicopter scene.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Gary Oldman was Miller's original choice for the role of John Du Pont, and Bill Nighy was also considered before Carell was cast.
  • Ryan Gosling and Heath Ledger were considered to play Mark before Channing Tatum was cast.
  • According to Sienna Miller, John shooting Dave and the following 911 call was a major scene based on transcripts of the call. It is presented as a silent sequence in the finished film.
  • Bennett Miller claims that his initial cut of the film ran nearly four hours long.

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