Bronson - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Bronson or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Bronson

[kristen]

Bronson is occasionally seen wearing a small pair of shades. These are not an accessory. According to the real-life Bronson, his years in poorly-lit solitary units so damaged his eyesight that he required darkened lenses just to read.

[ken]

Charles Bronson was born under the name of Michael Gordon Peterson on the 6th December 1952 in Luton, Bedfordshire.

[frederick]

Surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, to whom Refn frequently dedicates his films, claims he had a "spiritual orgasm" when he first watched Bronson and found it a very artistic film. He had first met Refn at a bookstore where there was a poster of the film Bronson and he asked Refn what it was about. They became friends and Jodorowsky would later go on to present Valhalla Rising for Refn.

[cassandra]

Michael Peterson, a.k.a. Charles Bronson changed his name to Charles Salvador.

[jessie]

When the real life Charles Bronson was moved to Parkhurst Prison in 1976, he befriended the notorious Kray Twins. Coincidentally enough, Tom Hardy would later portray both of the Kray twins in the film Legend (2015).

[brent]

Contrary to popular belief, Tom Hardy did not do 2,500 push-ups a day in preparation for the role of Bronson. The confusion and reason for this rumor is that Charlie Bronson (Michael Peterson) himself was the one doing 2,500 push-ups a day around the time Hardy was meeting with him to gather information for the film script. Hardy himself denied this rumor during an interview in late 2009 with Michael Slenke from Interview Magazine. The full interview is available at the magazine's website. The interview is titled 'Rough Character'.

[clayton]

Charles Bronson was not allowed to see the film, but said that if his mother liked it, that would be enough for him. According to Refn, his mother loved it. In 2011 Bronson was finally allowed to see the film and called it "theatrical, creative and brilliant".

[kristina]

Never killed a man but is serving life imprisonment.

[nora]

The British Prison Officers' Association complained when the film's London premiere was prefaced with a recording by Charles Bronson himself, recorded at HMP Wakefield, where he stated: "I'm proud of this film, because if I drop dead tonight, then I live on. I make no bones about it, I really was... a horrible, violent, nasty man. I'm not proud of it, but I'm not ashamed of it either... See you at the Oscars." It is illegal in the UK to make unauthorized recordings of prison inmates. This recording appears on some DVD-editions.

[manuel]

Nicolas Winding Refn was not allowed to meet Charles Bronson in person since he is not from Britain, but was allowed to have two phone calls with him. Tom Hardy met with Bronson several times and the two became good friends. Bronson was impressed with how Hardy managed to get just as muscular as he was and how well he could mimic his own personality and voice. Bronson has stated he believes Hardy was the only person who could play him.

[amber]

Charles Bronson shaved off his moustache and sent it to Tom Hardy so that it could be made into a loose-moustache for Hardy to wear.

[cassandra]

In the last scene, when Bronson takes the librarian as a hostage, puts a green apple in his mouth, paints his face and places a black bowler hat on his head- what he was doing was exactly recreating a very popular painting from 1964 by Belgian painter René Magritté titled "Son of Man". Meaning, that all Michael Peterson (Charlie Bronson) wanted all along was to express himself but didn't know how nor was he allowed to and it instead manifested in decades of aggression and violence. This is the whole mystical message within the film; that art, creativity and expression save lives, that they have the power to rehabilitate, to transform, if only they are given an opportunity.

[duane]

Paula Williamson, an actress from the TV series Coronation Street (1960) and whom Charles "Bronson" Salvador was briefly married to in 2017, was found dead in her home in Stoke-on-Trent, Sussex, England, on July 28, 2019. The cause is unknown but police said she was found with a large quantity of cocaine and pills, so drug overdose seems to be the cause. She was just 38. Charlie Bronson sought to annul the marriage by June, 2019, after a photo of Paula with a man's head in her breasts while on vacation in Tenerife got to Bronson and he became outraged. She passed away before the marriage could be annulled. The man in the picture turned out to be a gay friend of Paula.

[christina]

Jason Statham was originally asked to play Charles Bronson but scheduling conflicts prevented him from appearing in this film.

[tom]

During the New York Comic Con in October 2013, the actor Steven Ogg who plays Trevor Phillips in GTA V, revealed that his inspirations to play the character were Tom Hardy in Bronson (2008) and Matthias Schoenaerts in Bullhead (2011). Both of those actors appeared together in The Drop.

[bernard]

The line "it was absolute madness at its very best" was written by Charles Bronson himself for the film and told to Nicolas Winding Refn during one of their phone calls.