Trivia for
Nixon (1995) More at IMDbPro »

• Used the same Oval Office set as The American President (1995).
  
  
• While shooting the scene where Nixon and Jones confront each other, the lights were aimed straight down at coffee tables in front of the fur-upholstered couch. The lights were so powerful that the rug beneath one of the tables started smoking. In the middle of the first take, an extra noticed the increasing amount of smoke, and muttered "fire" quietly during a pause between lines of dialogue. James Woods heard this and stopped the scene before the rug caught fire.
  
  
• In Hong Kong, the movie was given a title that translated to 'The Big Liar'.
  
  
• The scene at Santa Anita Raceway echoes a similar scene in JFK (1991), and even hints at the previous movie with John Williams' JFK theme played in scenes in which Kennedy is referenced.
  
  
• When Nixon returns from China and goes to the press area aboard Air Force One, the reporter in the front row on the left side can be seen knocking his head on the overhead compartment. This was the first of three takes of this shot. After Oliver Stone noticed on playback that Jim (the reporter) had bumped his head, Stone called for another take, which was followed by a third, "just to make sure". Ironically, the first take, with Jim the reporter's head bump, is the one that made it into the final film.
  
  
• The film was denounced by Richard Nixon's daughters.
  
  
• When Oliver Stone saw The Remains of the Day (1993), he decided to cast Anthony Hopkins because he was able to exude the kind of inner conflict that he was looking for.
  
  
• The film was completed somewhere around the time the real Richard Nixon died in 1994. The footage of his funeral at the end, along with a narrated epilogue, was added several months before the film's release.
  
  
• To gain the feel of Richard Nixon, Anthony Hopkins watched almost every speech Nixon ever made on tape several times. He also met some people who knew Nixon that could lend Hopkins some insight on him.
  
  
• Tom Hanks was offered the part of Richard Nixon but turned it down.
  
  
• Director Oliver Stone's first two choices to play Richard Nixon were Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson.
  
  
• Meryl Streep was considered for the role of Pat Nixon.
  
  
• Jack Nicholson was offered the role of Richard Nixon, but declined.
  
  
• Lillian Disney, in a rare public criticism of her late husband Walt Disney's company (which released the film and in which she was a major stockholder), released a statement soon after the film opened expressing her extreme displeasure with it and that Walt Disney Company was involved in its release (although the film wasn't released by Disney but by Buena Vista Picturs, a Disney subsidiary). She believed the film was mean-spirited and biased; she also extended a personal apology on behalf of the Disney family to the Nixon family. Both families were close and often socialized together, so the Disneys knew the Nixons personally. Mrs. Disney thought that the film grossly exaggerated President Nixon's character faults and ignored what she believed to be many of his redeeming qualities.
  
  
• When Nixon is speaking with the CIA director (Sam Waterston), the director quotes from his favorite poet, William Butler Yeats, to whom Anthony Hopkins is related.
  
  
• Oliver Stone plays the off-screen interviewer of Hannah Nixon.
  
  
• E.G. Marshall was born less than a year after the real John Mitchell, and at 80 years old when he filmed the part, he was an older man than Mitchell ever was, who died in 1988 at age 75.
  
  
• Robin Williams was offered the role of Nixon, but turned it down.
  
  
• John Malkovich was offered the role of Nixon, but Hopkins was cast while he was considering it.
  
  
• Anthony Hopkins and Joan Allen have both appeared in the Hannibal Lecter films. Allen appeared in Manhunter (1986), while Hopkins appeared in The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Hannibal (2001), and the remake Red Dragon (2002).
  
  
• Dan Hedaya later played Nixon himself in Dick (1999). Madeline Kahn played Pat Nixon on Saturday Night Live. Kevin Dunn previously played J. Edgar Hoover in Chaplin (1992).
  
  
• Oliver Stone said he voted for Nixon in '68, based on his pledge to end the war in Vietnam.
  
  

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