Trivia / Moonlight (2016)

• Amateur Cast: The child actors were hired from an open casting call in Miami.
• Enforced Method Acting: The three actors playing Chiron didn't meet during filming to avoid them copying each other's acting styles.
• Fake American: Naomie Harris is English.
• No Budget: Made for $1.5 million, it's now the lowest budget film to win Best Picture. (Some estimates of the budget have $4 million instead; it's not clear which is correct.)
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: All three Timeshifted Actors who play Chiron in their respective stages of his life resemble one-another to some extent making the character's age progression all the more believable. The same goes for the three actors who play Kevin.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The scene of Juan teaching Chiron how to swim was originally going to be longer and more dialogue-heavy, but an incoming storm cut back on their shooting time. The darkening clouds ended up giving the sequence far more dramatic heft, and turned it into something of a Signature Scene.
• Sleeper Hit: The movie went from virtually unknown to making at least 16 and possibly as many as 43 times its budget at the box office^note Of course, given its budget that isn't as impressive as it sounds, but it's still quite the financial success and winning three Oscars, including Best Picture.
• Star-Making Role: Mahershala Ali already had a respectable career before this movie, but his performance as Juan and the subsequent Oscar win is what made him a household name.
• Write What You Know: Director Barry Jenkins and playwright Tarrel Alvin McCraney^note who wrote the unpublished play Moonlight was based on both grew up in Liberty Square, where much of the film takes place. In fact, Jenkins was able to shoot there undisturbed since he still had relatives living in the area.

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