Trivia / Les Misérables (2012)

• Actor-Inspired Element: It was Eddie Redmayne who suggested that he begin "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" a capella.
• All-Star Cast: Hugh Jackman (Valjean), Russell Crowe (Javert), Anne Hathaway (Fantine), Sacha Baron Cohen (Thénardier), Helena Bonham Carter (Mme. Thénardier), Eddie Redmayne (Marius), Amanda Seyfried (Cosette), Samantha Barks (Éponine), and Aaron Tveit (Enjolras). In addition, Colm Wilkinson plays the Bishop of Digne while Frances Ruffelle and many other former cast members have cameos.
• Blooper:
  • When Fantine leads her first John to a ship for sex, her shawl appears and disappears between shots.
  • At the start of One Day More, Eponine pulls out Marius's letter to Cosette. The closeup shows that the letter is wet. The wide shot shows that it is dry and brand new.
  • When Enjolras is shot dead, he holds up a red banner with just one hand. As he falls out of the window, he is holding it with both hands.
• Costume Backlash: Anne Hathaway was not acting during the scene of Fantine's Traumatic Haircut, where she became so distressed after the first bit was cut, they had to swap Nicola Sloane out for the actress's personal hairdresser. Years later, she also admitted that the weight she lost to portray Fantine's poverty was a bad idea and gave her lingering health problems.
• Creator Backlash: Amanda Seyfried stated in 2021 that she regretted her performance as Cosette, and found her singing so weak that after the film she worked harder to strengthen her voice.
  "I wish I could redo ‘Les Misérables’ completely because the live singing aspect, I still have nightmares about it."
• Deleted Scene: Much more of the wedding scene was shot instead of the Thenardiers simply being thrown out on their ear.
• Disowned Adaptation: Patti LuPone, who originated the role of Fantine in London, was not partial to how Tom Hooper chose to shoot the film. She especially disliked his decision to film “I Dreamed a Dream” in extreme closeup, but didn’t go so far as to criticise Anne Hathaway’s performance.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • For the film Anne Hathaway had her hair cut short on camera and lost 25 pounds to make it look like she was dying. She refused to say how she lost so much weight in fear that other women would attempt her near-fatal methods for superficial reasons - but revealed years later she only ate a tiny portion of dried oatmeal paste a day for two weeks.
  • Hugh Jackman lost 30 pounds (even recreating the diet that Valjean would have had in prison), shaved his head, and grew a scraggly beard for the scenes where Valjean was a convict, even going 36 hours without water. Even more amazing is that he was exercising heavily while still not eating, on Dwayne Johnson's advice, because he had to shoot The Wolverine almost immediately after Les Mis and had to get ready to bulk back up in record time.
• Enforced Method Acting
  • The actors famously recorded all of their singing on-set, accompanied by an off-screen pianist via an ear piece, with the orchestral accompaniment following their vocal tracks. This allowed the filmmakers to record all of the songs in real time and helped the actors, who were typically not familiar with operatic singing, to give more naturalistic readings of their sung dialogue.
  • According to the DVD commentary, the entire barricade building sequence was done by the actors themselves in real time, which was around 15 minutes, and the director's only instructions were four words: "Build a barricade. Action!"
• Fake Nationality: The French characters are played by Australian, American and British actors.
• Meme Acknowledgment: A popular meme in the 2010s compared Javert's costume in this to the blue outfit Britney Spears wore in her "Toxic" music video. Russell Crowe found it hilarious, and Britney joked that they should collaborate.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Some scenes in the trailers, such as shots of Javert and his men running with search lanterns in hand, and Cosette, who is in her wedding dress, riding in the carriage and looking very happy, don't actually appear in the movie itself.
• Predecessor Casting Gag: In the 2012 film version of Les Misérables, Colm Wilkinson, the original stage actor who played Jean Valjean, appears as the Bishop who gives the film's version of Valjean his second chance at life by refusing to turn him in for theft and allowing him to leave with the valuables. While not a direct parental figure, his merciful actions are shown to be a constant guiding influence on the rest of Valjean's life and the Bishop appears as a spirit along with Fantine to welcome Valjean into heaven at the end of the film.
• Real-Life Relative: Russell Crowe's son, Tennyson, appeared in "Do You Hear The People Sing?" as one of the street urchins, waving the red flag, with Gavroche.
• Role Reprise: Samantha Barks reprises her role as Éponine from the 25th anniversary concert of the West End production.
• Saved from Development Hell: A film adaptation of the musical was discussed for many years; the 1991 souvenir program for the stage show claimed it was coming out in 1993 via TriStar Pictures. Universal Pictures was the studio that finally brought the movie to the light of day in December 2012.
• Self-Adaptation: Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg and Herbert Kretzmer helped co-write the film adaptation of the musical, along with William Nicholson.
• Star-Making Role: For Eddie Redmayne. In fact, most people had never heard of him when his casting was announced (although he had also just appeared in My Week with Marilyn). Jackman, Crowe, Hathaway, Baron Cohen, Bonham Carter and Seyfried were all recognizable film stars, while Barks and Tveit, at least, were big names in the theater community.
• Typecasting: Mme Thernardier is given a dose of Adaptational Attractiveness to bring her more in line with Helena Bonham Carter's usual dark nutcase characters.
• Underage Casting: Jean Valjean lived to be sixty-four and story begins in 1815 meaning a forty-four-year old Hugh Jackman plays him from the ages of 46-64. It is not so bad at the start but becomes really noticeable due to a general lack of attempting to make Jackman look older.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The original cut is 4 hours with a 15-minute long battle sequence. But Hooper trimmed it down to 2 hours and 37 minutes which results to some songs cut with some scenes from the trailers not appearing in the final version of the movie, such as the last part of "The Confrontation" where Valjean and Javert continues singing the last stanza of the song in a form of a Distant Duet.
  • During said last part of "The Confrontation," Fantine's dead body would have been shown being tossed out of the hospital window and hauled away ignominiously on a cart. In an interview, Anne Hathaway talked about filming that scene. But it's not in the finished film.
  • Before Samantha Barks reprised her role as Eponine for the film, Lea Michele, Scarlett Johansson (who also auditioned for the role of Fantine), Emily Browning, Hayden Panettiere, Lucy Hale, Evan Rachel Wood, and Taylor Swift (of all people) were considered for the role.
  • Before Anne Hathaway was cast as Fantine, Amy Adams, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Jessica Biel, Emily Blunt, and Rebecca Hall were considered for the role.
  • Before Amanda Seyfried was cast as Cosette, Emma Watson, Shailene Woodley and Miranda Cosgrove auditioned for the role.
  • Rowan Atkinson, Billy Crystal, Ricky Gervais, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and Geoffrey Rush (who portrayed Javert in the non-musical Les Misérables (1998)) were considered for the role of Monsieur Thénardier.
  • When the film was in Development Hell for 20 years, Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Gene Hackman, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, and Christopher Walken were all considered for the role of Jean Valjean at different points in time.
  • Alfie Boe auditioned for the role of Jean Valjean, having played the role for the 25th anniversary concert.
  • Paul Bettany was considered for the role of Javert.
  • Jamie Campbell Bower was once rumored to play the role of Enjolras. Eddie Redmayne also auditioned for the role because Tom Hooper wanted a young 17-year-old for the role of Marius, but he ultimately cast Redmayne as Marius and Aaron Tveit as Enjolras^note Interestingly, Tveit is only one year younger than Redmayne.
  • Colin Farrell met with Tom Hooper to discuss playing either Valjean or Javert. It was mutually decided that he was too old for both parts.
• Word of God: In "Master of the House", Madame Thénardier replaces an outgoing guest's luggage with a basket containing a baby. It is confirmed that the baby is Gavroche.
• You Look Familiar: Most of the Amis, as well as other unnamed students that fight at the barricade, are played by young men who have played the roles of Enjolras, Marius, and other roles in the musical on West End.

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