Trivia / The Lost Weekend

• Actor-Inspired Element: The very near-sighted Phillip Terry wore his own glasses with prescription lenses in this film.
• Dyeing for Your Art: To achieve the gaunt, haggard look of a drunk on a whopper of a bender, Ray Milland went on a crash diet of dry toast, coffee, grapefruit juice and boiled eggs, and subsequently took off many pounds.
• Method Acting: Ray Milland actually checked himself into Bellevue Hospital with the help of resident doctors, in order to experience the horror of a drunk ward. Milland was given an iron bed and locked inside the "booze tank." That night, a new arrival came into the ward screaming, an entrance which ignited the whole ward into hysteria. With the ward falling into bedlam, a robed and barefooted Milland escaped while the door was ajar and slipped out onto 34th Street where he tried to hail a cab. When a suspicious cop spotted him, Milland tried to explain, but the cop didn't believe him, especially after he noticed the Bellevue insignia on his robe. The actor was dragged back to Bellevue where it took him a half-hour to explain his situation to the authorities before he was finally released.
• Playing Against Type: Ray Milland had been a popular matinee idol for several years in Hollywood, making his mark in romantic comedies and adventure films, so the decision to cast him as Don Birnam was a surprise to many, especially him.
• Romance on the Set: Billy Wilder became infatuated by a brunette extra who was hired to play a coat check girl in the scene where Don Birnam gets thrown out of a bar for stealing money from a woman's purse. It proved to be a non-role for the extra, since only her arm can be seen giving a coat to Birnam, but no matter. The extra's name was Audrey Young, and she eventually married the smitten director.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Billy Wilder wanted José Ferrer for the role of Don, the studio rejected him, claiming he wasn't a "bankable lead." Cary Grant was also considered.
  • Katharine Hepburn was offered the role of Helen. She was interested, but had to turn it down in order to star in Without Love. Charles Brackett's first choice was Olivia de Havilland, but she was involved with a lawsuit that prevented her from being in any film at that time. Jean Arthur and Myrna Loy also passed, while Barbara Stanwyck was considered.

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