Trivia for
Fatal Attraction (1987) More at IMDbPro »

• Rosanna Arquette, Kate Capshaw, Cher, Ellen Barkin, Carrie Fisher, Linda Hamilton, Daryl Hannah, Barbara Hershey, Holly Hunter, Amy Irving, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Heather Locklear, Madonna, Lena Olin, Annette O'Toole, Michelle Pfeiffer, Miranda Richardson, Mary Steenburgen, Meryl Streep, Raquel Welch, Tuesday Weld, Debra Winger, Jane Seymour, Cybill Shepherd, Susan Sarandon, Kim Basinger, Kelly McGillis, Melanie Griffith, Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Christine Ebersole, Mary Gross, Kay Lenz, Jessica Lange, Diane Keaton, Sissy Spacek, Sigourney Weaver, Candice Bergen, Goldie Hawn, Farrah Fawcett, Christine Baranski and Isabella Rossellini were considered for the role of Alex Forrest.
  
  
• Based on a short film made for British TV which James Dearden wrote and directed.
  
  
• Glenn Close graduated from Rosemary Hall, an all-girls boarding school, the same year Michael Douglas graduated from the Choate School, an all-boys boarding school. The schools later combined to form Choate Rosemary Hall, which is co-ed.
  
  
• Horror director, John Carpenter, was originally offered the chance to direct. He eventually declined because he felt the premise was too similar to Play Misty for Me (1971).
  
  
• The TV show that Ellen Hamilton Latzen is watching at the beginning of the movie is "You Can't Do That on Television" (1979).
  
  
• Glenn Close still has the knife she used in the movie hanging in her kitchen.
  
  
• The film's working titles were "Affairs of the Heart", and "Lethal Attraction".
  
  
• Brian De Palma was originally slated to direct but he backed out because he feared that the story was too similar to Play Misty for Me (1971). De Palma also felt that Michael Douglas was not a good leading man. De Palma has since admitted he was wrong about Douglas.
  
  
• Maurice Jarre's score doesn't kick in until almost a half-hour into the film.
  
  
• More than 20 directors passed on directing the movie.
  
  
• When Glenn Close finally secured the part of Alex Forrest, one of the first things she did was to take the script to two different psychiatrists to ask them: "Is this behavior possible and if it is, why?"
  
  
• When Glenn Close's agent first called to express her interest in playing Alex Forrest, he was told, "Please don't make her come in. She's completely wrong for the part." Director Adrian Lyne also thought that Glenn Close was "the last person on Earth" who should play Alex.
  
  
• The apartment used for the Gallaghers' apartment toward the beginning of the film, is the same apartment Adrian Lyne used in Nine 1/2 Weeks (1986) for Elizabeth's apartment.
  
  
• Glenn Close said that in her opinion, she had no trouble doing her nude scenes because she believed that they were not exploitive at all, and that they all served the story.
  
  
• Glenn Close was actually a few weeks pregnant with her daughter during the re-shoot of the ending.
  
  
• This film was the second highest grossing film of 1987.
  
  
• Glenn Close's terrifying performance as Alex Forrest was ranked #7 on AFI's 100 years...100 heroes and villains list.
  
  
• After the reaction of the audience to the original ending, it was decided that the ending be re-shot. Glenn Close was opposed to redoing the ending, but eventually felt she owed it to everyone else to do it.
  
  
• Isabelle Adjani was offered the role of Alex which she declined.
  
  
• Faye Dunaway, Mia Farrow and Anjelica Huston were originally considered for the role of Alex Forrest, but they never auditioned for the part. Barbara Hershey, Miranda Richardson and Debra Winger were the first choices to play Alex Forrest who auditioned for the part. Glenn Close was actually the fourth choice for the role of Alex Forrest.
  
  
• Sharon Stone auditioned for the role of Alex Forrest, but was passed over.
  
  
• Ranked at number 59 on Bravo's "The 100 Scariest Movie Moments" (2004) special.
  
  
• The two psychiatrists who reviewed the script at Glenn Close's request both came to the same conclusion: Alex Forrest's behavior was - in its own way - classic behavior. Their diagnosis was that Alex had been molested and sexually tortured for an extended period of time while she was a child. As such, she would naturally lash out at anyone who found her desirable.
  
  
• While talking with David Letterman on "Late Show with David Letterman" (1993), Emma Thompson referred to auditioning for the role of Alex (it was in the context of a story she was telling). Letterman asked if she really did audition and she said 'yes'.
  
  
• Apparently Adrian Lyne asked Tracey Ullman to screen test before Glenn Close won the part.
  
  
• Gilda Radner auditioned for the role of Alex Forrest.
  
  
• Elisabeth Shue was originally considered for the role Alex Forrest but was forced to turn the role down, because she was signed to the Disney movie Adventures in Babysitting (1987).
  
  

• SPOILER: The original ending had Alex committing suicide while dressed in white, and Dan being arrested for her murder. It was changed when preview audiences felt that Alex was not brought to justice. This ending still appears in the Japanese release. The ending was re-shot in the worship room of the Unitarian church in Mt. Kisco, NY.
  
  
• SPOILER: Alex's treatment of the pet rabbit has given rise to the commonly used expression "bunny boiler" in the UK - used to describe an obsessive woman with the potential to stalk casual acquaintances or one-night stands.
  
  

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