Fatal Attraction

Production

Writing

The film was adapted by James Dearden (with assistance from Nicholas Meyer)[3][4] from Diversion, an earlier 1980 short film by Dearden for British television. In Meyer's book The View from the Bridge: Memories of Star Trek and a Life in Hollywood, he explains that in late 1986 producer Stanley R. Jaffe asked him to look at the script developed by Dearden, and he wrote a four-page memo making suggestions, including a new ending. John Carpenter was approached to direct the film, but turned it down as he felt it was too similar to Play Misty for Me (1971).[5] A few weeks later Meyer met with director Adrian Lyne and gave him some additional suggestions. Ultimately Meyer was asked to redraft the script on the basis of his suggestions, which ended up being the shooting script.

Casting

Producers Sherry Lansing and Stanley R. Jaffe both had serious doubts about casting Glenn Close because they did not think she could be sexual enough for the role of Alex.[6] Barbara Hershey was originally considered; she wanted the role but she was unavailable.[7] Several actresses auditioned for the part, but they were almost all turned down.[7] Lyne had French actress Isabelle Adjani in mind for the role.[8] Tracey Ullman was approached for the role, but she declined due to a scene in the script where the character boils a bunny.[9] Miranda Richardson also turned it down as she found it "hideous".[10] Ellen Barkin, Debra Winger, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Lange, Melanie Griffith and Michelle Pfeiffer were also considered for the role.[11][12] Kirstie Alley auditioned for the role.[11] Close was persistent, and after meeting with Jaffe several times in New York, she was asked to fly out to Los Angeles to read with Michael Douglas in front of Adrian Lyne and Lansing. Before the audition, she let her naturally frizzy hair "go wild" because she was impatient at putting it up, and she wore a slimming black dress she thought made her look "fabulous" to the audition.[13] This impressed Lansing, because Close "came in looking completely different... right away she was into the part."[14] Close and Douglas performed a scene from early in the script, where Alex flirts with Dan in a café, and Close came away "convinced my career was over, that I was finished, I had completely blown my chances".[6] Lansing and Lyne were both convinced she was right for the role; Lyne stated that "an extraordinary erotic transformation took place. She was this tragic, bewildering mix of sexuality and rage—I watched Alex come to life."[15]

To prepare for her role, Close consulted several psychologists, hoping to understand Alex's psyche and motivations. She was uncomfortable with the bunny boiling scene, which she thought was too extreme, but she was assured on consulting the psychologists that such an action was entirely possible and that Alex's behavior corresponded to someone who had experienced incestual sexual abuse as a child.[6][16]

Filming

While filming her death scene, Close suffered a concussion and she wound up in the hospital; she later found out that she was pregnant during filming.[17]

Alternate ending

Alex Forrest was originally scripted slashing her throat at the film's end with the knife Dan had left on the counter, so as to make it appear that Dan had murdered her. After seeing her husband being taken away by police, Beth finds a revealing cassette tape that Alex sent Dan in which she threatens to kill herself. Upon realizing Alex's intentions, Beth takes the tape to the police, who clear Dan of the murder. The last scene shows, in flashback, Alex taking her own life by slashing her throat while listening to Madame Butterfly.

After doing test screenings, Joseph Farrell (who handled the test screenings) suggested that Paramount shoot a new ending.[18][19][20]

In the 2002 Special Edition DVD, Close comments that she had doubts about re-shooting the film's ending because she believed the character would "self-destruct and commit suicide".[21] Close eventually gave in on her concerns, and filmed the new sequence after having fought against the change for two weeks.[21][4] In 2010, during a cast reunion interview, Close shared that she "never thought of [her character] as a villain",[22] stating that: "I wasn't playing a generality, I wasn't playing a cliché. I was playing a very specific, deeply disturbed, fragile human being, whom I had grown to love."[6] Though the ending was not the one she preferred, she acknowledged that the film would not have experienced the enormous success it did without the new ending, because it gave the audience "a sense of catharsis, a hope, that somehow the family unit would survive the nightmare".[6]

The film's first Japanese release used the original ending. The original ending also appeared on a special edition VHS and LaserDisc release by Paramount in 1992, and was included on the film's DVD release a decade later.[23]

Home media

A Special Collector's Edition of the film was released on DVD in 2002.[24] Paramount released Fatal Attraction on Blu-ray Disc on June 9, 2009.[25] The Blu-ray contained several bonus features from the 2002 DVD, including commentary by director Adrian Lyne, cast and crew interviews, a look at the film's cultural phenomenon, a behind-the-scenes look, rehearsal footage, the alternative ending, and the original theatrical trailer. In April 2020 a remastered Blu-ray Disc was released by Paramount Home Entertainment under their Paramount Presents series. Included was a new interview with the director titled Filmmaker Focus, previous rehearsal footage but excluding some of the extra features from previous releases.[26] Paramount released the film on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray in the U.S. on September 13, 2022.[27]


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