Trivia / The Birdcage

• Cast the Expert: The rabbi co-officiating Val and Barbara's wedding is a real rabbi.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Before he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts, Steve Martin was set to play Armand, with Robin Williams as Albert. This is also partly due to Williams asking to play Armand instead, as he felt the Straight Man character (no pun intended) would provide more of a challenge.
  • Hank Azaria originally only read for a small role, as David Alan Grier was sought to play Armand and Albert's housekeeper. The filmmakers later felt that white employers of a black domestic wouldn't sit too well with 90's audiences. So the character was made Hispanic (which, despite still being stereotypical, is generally considered less controversial) and Azaria was upgraded to play Agador after some hilarious table reads.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Albert is voiced by the dancer Norio Imamura, better known by many anime fans as the first voice of Emporio Ivankov, before being replaced due to a scandal.
• Dawson Casting: Two rather baffling examples — so much so that we are constantly reminded that Barbara is “only 18”, as if to reinforce the contrivance.
  • 32-year-old Calista Flockhart unconvincingly plays a 18-year-old. (Being so waifish, she could maybe pass as a senior or graduate student, but come on.)
  • 27-year-old Dan Futterman isn't much better as the 20 year old Val.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Due to the nature of the story, Mike Nichols made Nathan Lane and Robin Williams promise to do one take exactly as scripted before they could go wild in retakes. This is bound to happen.
• Playing Against Type
  • One of Robin Williams' few comedic roles as the (no pun intended) Straight Man. In fact, he was originally cast as Albert before he asked to switch roles with Nathan Lane in fear of typecasting. It was also generally agreed that having him play a character who's Disguised in Drag would come across too much like the filmmakers were trying to recreate Mrs. Doubtfire.
  • Inversely, this was one of Nathan Lane's only roles where he's not the Straight Man (again, no pun intended, as he is the only main actor in the film who's actually gay) or a Deadpan Snarker. In fact, it's his only cinematic role where he actually plays a gay character!
• Queer Character, Queer Actor: A retroactive case; Nathan Lane is openly gay like his character in the film, but he didn't come out until 1999, three years after the film's release.
• Saved from Development Hell: A remake of La Cage aux folles was originally planned in the mid-80's, with Frank Sinatra and Dudley Moore suggested for the lead roles. Sinatra was game, but Moore decided against it, causing the project to be in limbo until the mid-90's.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Dan Futterman could, at moments, resemble a young Robin Williams making Val being Armand's biological son all the more believable.
• Star-Making Role: Prior to this movie, Nathan Lane's only other recognizable movie role was as the voice of Timon while the rest of his career was (and, for the most part, still is) relegated to Broadway^note When relating a confrontation with the notorious Harvey Weinstein, he joked that Weinstein couldn't threaten to end his movie career because he already barely had one to speak of. He earned a modest live-action film career after this movie allowed audiences to match the voice to his face. A year later, he'd star in MouseHunt.
• Technology Marches On: It's a fairly major plot point that while a character can dial out from her car phone, she can't receive calls on it. Thus while she can call out for her messages, and then call the protagonists, they can't call her back to say that plans have changed yet again.
• Throw It In!
  • Reportedly, this happened between Nathan Lane and Robin Williams quite a bit. They did it so often that they were forced to promise that they would do one take exactly as the script said before they were allowed to ad-lib anymore.
  • Robin Williams' pratfall in the kitchen was entirely accidental, but the other actors held it together enough to use the take.
  • Mike Nichols added "...but you keep it all inside" to the end of Armand's "eccentric celebration of dance."
• Underage Casting: Armand is at least 50 even though Robin Williams turned 45 in 1996.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Jim Carrey and Billy Crystal were considered for Armand.
  • Diane Keaton was the first choice for the role of Louise Keeley but she felt the role was too similar to that of her character Nina Banks in Father of the Bride (1991), so she declined the role.

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