Set during the brutal French Indian War in the 1800’s the Last of the Mohicans is written as a love story around which a great deal of action revolves. It features a great deal of humanity shown at its worst and its best, but it is also the movie that managed to show that Daniel Day-Lewis could in fact become the leading man in a major motion picture. From then on his stock just kept rising as he took more and more parts that continued to cement his legacy and proved that he belonged in Hollywood. But the movie also had a few hidden facts that a lot of people didn’t see.
How many unknown extras do you know about?
10. The film was shot in the Blue Ridge Mountain Range in North Carolina.
The director actually paid upwards of $6 million to film in this location and passed it off as rural New York. It’s pretty understandable since rural New York is not quite the same as it might have been back then. The effect obviously worked since the cast and crew were able to make people think that they were actually in the wilderness of old New York.
9. Day-Lewis spent a great deal of time learning all the skills and developing the strengths he would need for his character.
He worked intensely on building his upper body strength, he learned how to track, and he learned how live off of the land. Any role he receives is usually a very well-developed and believable role simply because he is so invested in the character that he might actually be that person for all anyone knows. He definitely falls into his roles without question.
8. Day-Lewis stayed in character most of the time.
He carried his rifle with him everywhere he went and studiously avoided 20th century technology so that he could stay in character. His intention was to remain as pure as he could for the character as he wouldn’t allow any type of distraction that might ruin his concentration.
7. Day-Lewis and his female costar Madeline Stowe were continually trying to prank each other off screen.
Onscreen they were making googly eyes at one another the entire time but off screen they were always attempting to punk one another in some ridiculous fashion. The pranks didn’t seem to stop as the two went back and forth with such intensity that eventually the bar had to be raised and the pranks became even more insane.
6. The director was just as much of a perfectionist as Day-Lewis was.
The director the film would often take far more shots than were absolutely necessary and would work late into the night. He was such a perfectionist that he would keep his crew filming at night and would even go so far as to complain about the “orange light” that was ruining his shot. One of his people had to tell him that the orange light was the sun.
5. The film went a bit over budget.
The film went about $7 million over budget which isn’t really that bad but can still cause problems if it’s not taken care of somehow justified.
4. The original score was scrapped for something more traditional.
Since the original score wasn’t quite what the director wanted he scrapped it and had someone else come in to fix things.
3. Day-Lewis had a tough time getting out of character.
After the movie was done Day-Lewis had to have help stepping out of his role. He’d been living mostly outside and been so deep into his character that he could no longer stay indoors for long periods of time.
2. The film earned a modest take at the box office.
The Last of the Mohicans actually earned double its budget, even after going over, which is pretty good really.
1. The director wanted nothing to do with anything before the 20th century after this film.
The director got tired of wardrobe malfunctions and things simply falling apart. He wanted to start filming movies in which people wore clothes that didn’t fall off as much.
How many facts did you know already?
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