Trivia for
Big (1988)

photos

board

trailer

details

• Tom Hanks was the first choice to play Josh Baskin but was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts with the films Dragnet (1987) and Punchline (1988). Robert De Niro was then offered the lead role, and was rejected because his salary demand ($6 million) was too high. Tom Hanks then became available and accepted the lead role for $2 million. David Moscow was originally cast not as young Josh, but as Billy, since he didn't look like Robert De Niro. When Tom Hanks was given the role, David Moscow was recast as young Josh.
  
  
• David Moscow wore colored contact lenses to match the eye color of Tom Hanks.
  
  
• The first pair of clothes that Joshua puts on is a NY Giants jacket.
  
  

• One of five body-swap movies all released around the same time. The others were 18 Again! (1988), Vice Versa (1988), Like Father Like Son (1987) and Dream a Little Dream (1989).
  
  
• The script was first developed in 1984.
  
  
• To give star Tom Hanks an idea of how a 12 year-old would behave, director Penny Marshall filmed each "grown-up" scene with David Moscow (Young Josh) playing Tom Hanks's part, who then copied David Moscow's behavior.
  
  
• In preparation for the role, Tom Hanks met David Moscow and studied videotapes of him to see how he behaved and spoke. Tom Hanks also felt that David Moscow should just be himself so that the Josh Baskin character persona would be that of a real 12-year-old.
  
  
• Penny Marshall became the first female director to ever direct a movie that grossed more than $100 million at the box office with this movie.
  
  
• The scenes in Josh's neighborhood were filmed in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. The amusement park scenes were filmed at Rye Playland, in New York's Westchester County.
  
  
• Jared Rushton's (Billy) hair was dyed for the film. He's a natural blonde.
  
  
• According to Monica Rushton, Jared Rushton (Billy), David Moscow (little Josh) and Tom Hanks (big Josh) were put in a room with a bunch of toys to play with. Having silly string, they tried to use it to gross each other out and that is how the silly string scene between Jared Rushton and Tom Hanks appeared in the movie.
  
  
• The film's budget was estimated at $17 million.
  
  
• The offices of an actual advertising agency on 23rd Street in the Chelsea district in New York City was used for the scenes involving the fictitious MacMillan Toys Company, which were very hard on both the film crew and the actual workers of the agency. The location fee of $25,000 was donated to the American Craft Museum by the agency and Twentieth Century-Fox.
  
  
• Susan's car is a 1988 Subaru XT6.
  
  
• The football jersey Susan is wearing to bed is a NY Jets Jersey with #99 on it. At that time Mark Gastineau wore #99 for the Jets.
  
  
• The musical version of Big opened at the Shubert Theater on April 28, 1996 and ran for 193 performances.
  
  
• Ranked #10 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Fantasy" in June 2008.
  
  
• Debra Winger was original considered for the Susan Lawrence role but could not take the part because she was pregnant at the time. She recommended Elizabeth Perkins.
  
  
• The original ending for this film included a scene in which Josh is in class, and a "new girl in school" is brought into the classroom. Her similarity to Elizabeth Perkins and a reaction shot from Josh imply that this is Susan, having also become young. The scene was cut after poor response in test screenings.
  
  
• According to actor Robert Loggia, on the day they filmed the famous keyboard scene at F.A.O. Schwartz, he and Tom Hanks noticed that doubles dressed like them were on hand just in case the two could not do the dance moves correctly. It became their goal to do the entire keyboard number without the aid of the doubles. They succeeded.
  
  

Related Links