2022
Character: Jack Conrad
Release Date: December 15, 2022
Directed By: Damien Chazelle
Written By: Damien Chazelle
Genre: Comedy/Drama/History
Tagline: Always make a scene
MPAA Rating: PG 16
Produced by: Paramount Pictures, C2 Motion Picture Group, Marc Platt Productions
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Budget: $78,000,000 (estimated)
Filming Dates: July 01 2021 – October 21, 2021
Cast:
…Brad Pitt…Jack Conrad
…Diego Calva…Manny Torres
…Jean Smart…Elinor St. John
…Margot Robbie…Nellie LaRoy
…Olivia Wilde…Ida Conrad
…Flea…Bob Levine
Filming Locations:
Los Angeles, California, USA
Santa Clarita, California, USA
Rancho Camulos Museum, 5164 E Telegraph Rd., Piru,
Castle Ranch – 44901 Fairmont Road, Lancaster, California, USA
Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles, California, USA (Inside opening party scenes)
Big Sky Movie Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA
Warner Brothers Burbank Studios – 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA (New York Street)
Synopsis:
An original epic set in 1920s Los Angeles led by Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Diego Calva, with an ensemble cast including Jovan Adepo, Li Jun Li and Jean Smart. A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, it traces the rise and fall of multiple characters during an era of unbridled decadence and depravity in early Hollywood.
Trivia & Facts:
• The character Jack Conrad appears to be based on John Gilbert, a leading MGM star of the 1920s. Talkies revealed to many an apparent mismatch between his soft voice and his dashing on-screen persona, leading to dwindling roles, a drinking problem, and a death by heart attack in 1936, at the age of 38. Gossip columnist Elinor St. John’s line about Conrad near the end of this film was true also of Gilbert; despite his final MGM films tanking, he was still getting one of the largest paychecks in Hollywood due to his former fame and contract. Gilbert’s story also inspired the screenplay for Singin’ in the Rain (1952), particularly one of the clips featured in this film.
• The opening title card doesn’t appear until the 32 minute mark.
• Nellie LaRoy can be seen icing her nipples between takes – this practice was a trademark of Jean Harlow back in the day.
• When Jack Conrad arrives at the party, and is speaking Italian, his wife says he is from Shawnee. Brad Pitt is actually from Shawnee, Oklahoma.
• Of working with Margot Robbie for the role of Nellie, director Damien Chazelle said, “I needed someone utterly fearless. I had a sense she would attack it. There’s this sort of ravenous physical bravado to her. On the other hand, she’s also the most technically skilled thespian you could hope to work with as a director.”
• Damien Chazelle mentioned that there exists a version of the film entirely shot on his phone in his backyard, with him, his wife, and Diego Calva playing every role. This was to help get Calva more involved in a rehearsal process when stuck in quarantine after the pandemic shut production down. He joked that this version is pretty good too.
• Emma Stone was originally cast in the lead role, which was announced to be based on Clara Bow, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts after the production was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After Margot Robbie replaced her, the role was reworked to become more fictional in nature.
• Olivia Hamilton’s character is based on Dorothy Arzner, one of the first female directors in early Hollywood, and the inventor of the boom mic. Due to the technical restrictions of early talkies, she asked to put a microphone on a fishing rod to avoid restricting the actors’ movements.
• Both Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio read Damien Chazelle’s script for Babylon (2022) while filming Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019). DiCaprio’s friend Tobey Maguire is one of the producers of Babylon.
• Damien Chazelle pitched this film to a producer in 2009, who thought it was a bit ambitious for the filmmaker at the time. He did, however, like the idea of the film’s relationship with music and suggested Chazelle to try writing a musical. And so, this film idea would ultimately become La La Land (2016).
• The film depicts the extreme excesses of the film industry in the early and mid 1920s just before the old Hays Code, named after Will H. Hays. Not explained in the movie, in the late 1920s the out-of-control lifestyle in the Hollywood of that years (wild parties, sex, alcohol, drugs and all kind of depravities and libertine behaviors) caused a series of scandals that the major studios tried to stop to give a more respectable, distinguished and elegant image to the audience. Hays, prominent right-wing politician and deacon in the Presbyterian church, was designed to put order after the infamous Fatty Arbuckle incident where the young aspiring actress Virginia Rappe died. Hays Code changed Hollywood over the decades, to control actors and actresses outside the filming sets, banning on-screen nudity and drug use as well as reducing strongly the role of the women in the movies. Although from the late 1940s the code started to erode, it prevailed until 1967, when Jack Valenti (last of Hays Code’s protectors after Joseph Breen and Eric Johnson) derogated to replace it for a new rating system still active and in use since then.
• The character of Lady Fay Zhu is loosely based on Anna May Wong (1905-1961) the first Chinese-American actress in Hollywood whose career spanned both silent and sound films.
• Damien Chazelle detailed the casting of Diego Calva as the lead as a rigorous two-year process. He sifted through hundreds of thousands of headshots before stumbling on Calva’s. He said he was sold on his “eyes and overall look,” and wanted a lead that “didn’t come with emotional baggage for the audience to connect to.” This, and Zoom auditions, resulted in Calva landing the role.
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Nellie is inspired by Clara Bow, the original “It Girl” who scandalized the United States by being open about her sexual desires.
• In April 2022, it was announced that Tobey Maguire would play Charles Chaplin in this film. He actually plays a fictional character, a mobster named James McKay.
• The movie’s title refers to Babylonia, a city founded around the late 19th century BCE in what is now modern-day Iraq. According to the Bible, Babylonia became a large and splendorous city over the years, but decayed into vice. It was dissolved in the early Middle Ages when invaded by Arabs.
• Each time that Jack Conrad is seen, between filming scenes, throwing out ideas for films and scripts, he includes famous quotes from other films. The quotes are almost all of films made long after this film is set and there is always a change. For example, Terminator 2’s “hasta la vista, baby” becomes “hasta la vista, MF” and Gone With The Wind’s “frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn” becomes “frankly my dear, you’re a C”
• John Gilbert’s voice was not the famed falsetto the public have been led to believe it was. Louis B Mayer tried to force gilbert to quit his contract by giving him sub par talkies with mediocre directors. On his first talkie Mayer instructed sound engineers to remove the base in his voice, leading to a softer and higher tone. The scene where Jack watches audiences laugh as his scene saying “I love you, I love you, I love you”, was exactly what happened to Gilbert. Mayer vowed to destroy Gilbert’s career as Gilbert had hit Mayer after announcing he was to marry his Co star and Mayer said “why do you have to marry her? Just sleep with her!”. As Gilbert s career ground to a halt he descended into alcoholism which lead to him dying at a relatively young age. Many of his films have been destroyed or lost.
• At 59, Brad Pitt is more than 20 years older than John Gilbert was at the time of his death. Pitt’s character, Jack Conrad, is based on Gilbert.
• Jean Smart said when she read the script, she was concerned it would end up being X-rated so no one could see it, but she still wanted to be part of it when she saw the cast they were bringing on board.
• While on a podcast, Damien Chazelle stated the script was inspired by the TV show Babylon Berlin (2017).
• First collaboration between Margot Robbie (Nellie LaRoy) and Samara Weaving (Constance “Connie” Moore). Both actresses not only are Australians, but often times they figure in the lists of “reasonable likeness” because their strong resemblance of each other.
• Damien Chazelle began writing this film in 2009, before La La Land (2016) or musicals were even something he thought about tackling in his filmmaking career.
• Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt previously starred in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019), which explores the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
• The opening scene of the film, which lasts over 30 minutes, features “Fellini-esque debauchery” and graphic imagery involving a long orgy, reminiscent of films such as Eyes Wide Shut (1999).
• Margot Robbie’s overalls-only costume references a vintage photo of silent film actress Bessie Love, who, despite her innocent public image, appeared in numerous nude photos and illustrations.
• After seeing the film, actor Eric Roberts praised Margot Robbie’s performance. He compared it to Elizabeth Taylor in Wie is bang voor Virginia Woolf? (1966) and said he feels Robbie could win an Oscar for it. However, on January 25, 2023 when the Oscars nominations for the 95th Academy Awards were announced, Robbie wasn’t nominated as Best Actress.
• During press for David O. Russell’s Amsterdam (2022), which stars Margot Robbie, Andrea Riseborough revealed that she almost played a role in Babylon, but ultimately scheduling conflicts didn’t permit her involvement. She and Robbie expressed their regret that they had not shared any direct scenes in Russell’s film and, ultimately, Babylon as well.
• Coincidentally, just as Margot Robbie eventually took over the lead role from Emma Stone in this film, Stone was ultimately cast over Robbie in Birdman (2014), in the supporting role of Sam.
• In November 2019, the California Film Commission awarded the project a $17.5 million tax credit allocation for shooting the period drama in the state of California. The commission estimated that the film would generate $83.4 million in “qualified spending” – defined as below-the-line wages to California workers and payments to in-state vendors – but the allocation was contingent on production beginning within 180 days. However, with scheduling delays amid the pandemic, it appears the production won’t make the deadline.
• The film cast includes two Oscar winners: Brad Pitt and Spike Jonze; and two Oscar nominees: Margot Robbie and Eric Roberts.
• The fictional Kinoscope studio was critical for Damien Chazelle’s evocation of 1920s Hollywood, explains production designer Florencia Martin, and the vast studio setting was built on location and showed the sets and the desert simultaneously to give the viewers a full sense of that world. The bar set where Margot Robbie’s Nellie shoots her first film was based on Chazelle’s hand-drawn storyboards. “We picked a Western gold rush bar in Northern California and frosted the windows with snow,” says Martin.
• Justin Hurwitz, a frequent collaborator of Chazelle, composed the film’s score. Two tracks from the score, “Call Me Manny” and “Voodoo Mama,” were released digitally on November 10, 2022, the latter track being used to underscore the film’s first trailer. The soundtrack album was released by Interscope Records on December 9, 2022.
• Filming was initially set to take place in California in mid-2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• During the end montage before the credits there’s a flash frame of the film’s actual Clapper board. It reads, 480/X91N/3ER Babylon 10.14.21.
Spoilers
The trivia items below may give away important plot points.
Nellie’s $85,000 gambling debt is the equivalent of $1,847,112.04 in 2022.
• An early scene in which an extremely overweight man apparently kills a much younger woman during sex is a reference to an encounter between Virginia Rappe and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in September 1921. Rappe’s bladder ruptured during sex, resulting in a fatal infection. In the period between the injury and her death, Rappe and her friend Maude Delmont accused Arbuckle of rape. William Randolph Hearst created a moral panic by running a series of completely fictionalized stories in his newspapers, accusing Arbuckle of a variety of crimes, and sensationalizing the details of Rappe’s assault. Arbuckle’s films were banned, and he was tried three times in 1921-1922. The first two trials ended in hung juries, and the third ended in acquittal. Delmont later admitted that the sex was consensual, and said she and Rappe would have recanted their accusations in exchange for a sizable payment. Arbuckle died eleven years later in 1933, at the age of 46, just as he was starting to find film work again.
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Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie don’t share a scene until 1 hour and 24 minutes into the movie.
From the gallery
Quotes
[Jack finds George crying]
Jack Conrad: Who was it this time?
George Munn: Clair.
Jack Conrad: Well, Clair’s a lesbian. That’s an uphill battle for anyone.
Jack Conrad: [News of George’s suicide] He was the first guy to say I had talent. He saved my life.
Jack Conrad: I had a good run, didn’t I?
[From trailer]
Nellie LaRoy: Listen up, all you big dick mister men! Who wants to see me fight a fucking snake?
Jack Conrad: Fuck yeah!
Jack Conrad: And then he says: “Frankly Scarlett, you’re a cunt.” Type it.
Jack Conrad: Hola, Carmelita!
[turns to his fiancée Estelle]
Jack Conrad: I have no idea who that was.
Jack Conrad: You ever been on a movie set before?
Manny Torres: No.
Jack Conrad: You’ll see. It’s the most magical place in the world.”
Manny Torres: Eso dicen.
Jack Conrad: [to the bellhop who Jack gives the rest of his money to] It’s all on you now. The future is yours.
[goes to his hotel room to blow his brains out]
Jack Conrad: Bauhaus! You know what I mean by Bauhaus, don’t you?
Writer (Jack’s Tent): Not as it relates to this, no sir.
Jack Conrad: [Over the phone to Manny] I’m proud of you, you deserve this. Now go and show those fat fucks how it’s done!
Jack Conrad: I’m not asking you to fuck him, just make him feel special.
Jimmy: [Dead Extra] He probably ran himself through.
Director (Wallach’s Party): I heard he was a heavy drinker.
Jimmy: It’s a disease.
[phone rings]
Jack Conrad: Hello?
Irving Thalberg: Jack, it’s Irv. Listen, there’s no good way to say this. They found George in his home this morning. Looks like he struck out with a girl he was seeing.
[music stops]
Irving Thalberg: He shot himself. Jack?
Jack Conrad: Thank you.
Jack Conrad: [Fiancee has him at gunpoint] Is this about Carmelita? You know she’s just a friend!
Jack Conrad: So, do you like warm syrup or do you let the pancakes do that?
Jack Conrad: Noah’s Ark, why? Because it’s raining so much?
Jack Conrad: Manuel’s great!
Jack Conrad: Fucking Bauhaus, you know?
Jack Conrad: All art aspires to music.
Jack Conrad: Can you do a corpse Reviver? Gin, lemon, triple sec and Kina Lillet with a dash of absinthe. Two of those.
Jen: Two of those.
Jack Conrad: This is not a low art!
Jack Conrad: [serenely watching the chaos]
Jack Conrad: With a dash of absinthe!
External Links
…Official Facebook
…Official Instagram
…IMDB