American Beauty behind the scenes gags

American Beauty

Chevy Chase, Jeff Daniels and Tom Hanks were all candidates to play Leicester.
Kirsten Dunst was invited to play Angela in the film, but she refused.
Terry Gilliam refused to direct the film.
This film is considered to be the "Death of a Salesman" in the 90s.
The ending of the film is very similar to the ending of "The Very Suspect" starred by Kevin Spacey in 1995. Both of them use a fade-out technique to draw an end to the film in Kevin Spacey's voice-over.
The phone number of Leicester in the film is the same as the number that Al Pacino left in the answering machine of Russell Crowe in "The Insider" released in the same year.
The tape that Caroline heard in the film was recorded by the screenwriter Alan Bauer.
A poster of "The Very Suspect" can be seen in Leicester's bedroom.
The title of this film is derived from a kind of rose.
Towards the end of the film, Ricky opened the kitchen door and saw Lester. The hand that opened the door was actually the hand of the director Sam Mendes.
It was Steven Spielberg who recommended Sam Mendes to direct the film.
Although it can be concluded that the film was shot in the suburbs of Chicago based on the location of the film, the aerial images that appeared in the film were shot in Sacramento, the capital of California. Initially the crew wanted to shoot in San Jose, but the local police did not allow helicopters to fly below 300 feet in order to prevent noise disturbance. The crew's envisaged flying altitude was 100 feet.
The high school campus and gymnasium in the film were shot at Southern High School in Torrance, California.
After the film was completed, the director and editor cut off the fantasy scene at the beginning and the ending scene where Jane and Rich were arrested and interrogated. After seeing the final version of the film, many actors were surprised.
Chris Cooper was the final actor. At that time, the rehearsal of the film had already begun. The reason he was hesitant was because the role of Frank was very irritating. He was a little afraid of the script and the opportunity, and the director's choice made him shudder.
Wes Bentley was the first actor to read about Ricky's part. He was asked to describe the scene when the plastic bag was flying. Only after Bentley's narration did I really understand the connotation.
On the Oscar podium, Alan Bauer said that he had seen paper bags flying in the wind at the World Trade Center, so he had the inspiration for the script.
The hands and belly in the poster are not Mina Suvari.
Jack Gyllenhaal had hoped to play Ricky.