“One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” IMDB Trivia

perspective (as the novel is). Years later, he claimed to be lying in bed flipping through
TV channels when he settled onto a late-night movie that looked sort of interesting, only
to realize after a few minutes that it was this film. He then changed channels.
•Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Angela
Lansbury were all offered the role of Nurse Ratched.
•Louise Fletcher only realized that the part of Nurse Ratched was a hotly contested role among
all the leading actresses of the day when a reporter visiting the set happened to casually
mention it.
•This story was based on author Ken Kesey's experiences while working at the Veterans
Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, California.
•Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were offered the McMurphy role before Jack Nicholson.
•In order to produce the film, Michael Douglas quit the show"The Streets of San Francisco"
•According to Michael Douglas, director Milos Forman had his heart set on Burt Reynolds to
play the part of McMurphy.
•In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #33 Greatest Movie of All Time.
•During filming, a crew member running cables left a second story window open at the Oregon
State Mental Hospital and an actual patient climbed through the bars and fell to the
ground, injuring himself. The next day The Statesman Journal in Salem, Oregon reported
the incident with the headline on the front page "One flew OUT of the cuckoo's nest".
•Rumors that production shut down because Jack Nicholson had hair plugs implanted are false
(this can be verified by actually looking at his scalp). The story, as related by production
designer Paul Sylbert, was that Nicholson and director Milos Forman had very different
ideas about how the narrative should play out; for example, Forman thought that the ward
should be in bedlam when McMurphy showed up and Nicholson posited that his
character would have absolutely no effect on the mental patients if they were already
riled up, which would have negated the purpose of his character and therefore much of
the plot. Nicholson and Forman both refused to give an inch, each believing he was right
and the other was wrong. The "two months" that Nicholson was supposed to have
disappeared was actually closer to two weeks, and he didn't "disappear". In actuality,
Nicholson spearheaded a coup among the other actors and refused to let Forman run
rehearsals, running them himself instead. During production, Nicholson and Forman
spoke to each other through the cinematographer, but faked a friendly relationship when
the media and studio personnel would show up to the set. This is one explanation why
Nicholson doesn't appear on any of the DVD special features.
•Louise Fletcher was so upset with the fact that the other actors could laugh and be happy
while she had to be so cold and heartless that near the end of production she removed her
dress and stood in only her panties to prove to the actors she was not "a cold-hearted
monster".