Green Book - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

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

[maureen]

According to Nick Vallelonga, Johnny Williams, the actor who played Fat Paulie (who competes against Tony in the hot dog eating contest), actually ate hot dogs with Tony Lip.

[camila]

The piano piece with which Doc wows the crowd at the bar is Frédéric Chopin's Etude Op. 25 No. 11 "Winter Wind". It is considered one of the most difficult pieces to play, earning a 9 (highest) rating on the Henle Levels of Difficulty scale.

[ray]

Tony Lip's children were younger than portrayed in the film. Older child actors were cast in order to be eligible for more hours on-set per day.

[veronica]

Out of the eight Best Picture nominees, the film tied with Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) for the least amount of Academy Award nominations, each at five. However, Bohemian Rhapsody won the most Oscars of all the nominees, winning four, while Green Book took Best Picture.

[phyllis]

According to Peter Farrelly, Viggo Mortensen was surprisingly insecure playing an Italian-American, despite being conversational in Italian. Mortensen insisted on gaining the weight to better get in character, even though Farrelly told him it was unnecessary since Mortensen looked nothing like the real Tony Lip anyway.

[sandra]

Tony Lip did actually punch the police officer and consequently end up in jail with Dr. Shirley, but in real life the incident happened a year later, in the fall of 1963. This was during a separate road trip that occurred after the Christmas break featured at the end of the film. Shirley did call then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who helped get them out of jail. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated a few days later.

[charlie]

Knowing that he would one day make a film of the story that links Don Shirley and his father, Nick Vallelonga asked the latter to tell him again what had happened during filmed interviews. He also had a long talk with Shirley. Not only his notes but also the memories of his father, such as photographs, brochures, postcards and even the road map used during their journey, nourished the writing of the scenario.

[kristina]

Costume designer Betsy Heimann fitted Viggo Mortensen's clothing quite tightly; implying Tony bought his suits many years and folded pizzas earlier, and his finances were too constrained to buy new ones. She also explained that the fashion at the time was for trousers to be worn up around the waist, not below the belly. She noticed that Viggo incorporated this into his performance, as Tony regularly pulls his pants up when he walks around, and thought, "He's doing that for me!"

[tamara]

In the scene where Don first gets into the car, there is a poster advertising the November 10, 1962 folk-music Hootenanny. Headlined by Pete Seeger, this was Bob Dylan's first Carnegie Hall appearance.

[frances]

The cars the group drives are 1962 Cadillac Sedan DeVilles. The production used three, two for driving and one for static filming. The "hero car" was so loaded down with filming equipment the coil springs collapsed and the roof caved in.

[kenzi]

The friendship between Don Shirley and Tony Lip lasted more than 50 years. After the initial two-month trip, the duo ended up on a tour of about a year. The musician then asked Tony Lip to become his driver and bodyguard during his European tour, but he refused because he did not want to be separated from his family any longer. Both men died in 2013, 3 months apart. For Nick Vallelonga, Don Shirley was a friend of the family.

[gerald]

When Driving Miss Daisy (1989) won the Best Picture Academy Award, the film explored the relationship between a black chauffeur and his white employer. In this Best Picture winner the roles are reversed.

[cassandra]

One of the songs played by the Don Shirley trio during a montage is "Happy Talk" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "South Pacific", which, like "Green Book", also deals with the issue of racism. It is unclear, however, if the song was intentionally chosen because of this.

[chris]

Viggo Mortensen put on 20 pounds for the role of Tony Lip. He fed on Italian cuisine, mostly pizza and pasta. His technique, which he does not recommend because it is bad for your health, consisted of eating rich dinners, followed by at least one dessert just before going to bed. He admits that losing those pounds was much more difficult and less fun than gaining them.

[ken]

The opening of the film shows Bobby Rydell singing "That Old Black Magic" at the club where Tony Lipp works. The film later shows the exterior of the club, with a poster on the club's entrance, revealing Sammy Davis, Jr. as the next celebrity to perform at the club. Sammy Davis, Jr. also sang his own rendition to the song "That Old Black Magic".

[oscar]

Viggo Mortensen had to constantly stay on his fattening diet to maintain the weight during filming, after learning that even eating normally during his weekend off meant his pants no longer fit when he came back to work.

[chad]

The Italian-language scenes in the script simply read, "They speak Italian." Viggo Mortensen queried Peter Farrelly about it, and Farrelly encouraged him to construct the Italian dialogue himself. Drawing on Viggo's own experiences from overhearing Italian in Buenos Aires, the result is a combination of Calabrian and the "cobbled together" Italian that forms in diaspora communities where people of different regions converge. He also made an effort to make the language old-fashioned, as the slang and vocabulary the family spoke would have dated from the time of the Vallelonga and Venere fathers' immigration. Viggo experienced this himself after spending his childhood in Argentina and returning as an adult to find all his slang was out of date.

[tamara]

The only onscreen drink that Tony doesn't take in one gulp is the KFC soda.

[charlie]

The title and subject matter are a reference to "The Negro Motorist Green Book," also known as "The Negro Travelers' Green Book." Published from 1936-1966, the guide helped African-American travelers find lodging, restaurants, and other businesses that would serve them. It eventually covered most of North America, plus Bermuda and the Caribbean.