Less than Zero is a film that hits close to home since you hope and pray that you’ll never have to experience it firsthand in your lifetime. A college freshman comes home to find that his best friend has essentially tossed his life down the drain as he’s fallen headlong into a serious drug addiction. When he tries to help the friend is resistant though eventually does want to get better. The only problem is that there’s no permanent solution for someone that is hopelessly addicted to living in the gutter. It’s a day by day process that people have to want to endure.
Like I said, we all hope this never happens to anyone we know.
10. It was suggested that Robert Downey Jr. and Andrew McCarthy go out and party to get into character.
What happened was that Downey Jr. got so caught up in the moment that he was eventually arrested and McCarthy had to bail him out of jail.
9. Brad Pitt was paid a very low amount for his uncredited cameo.
He was more of a bystander than anything and he was paid about $38 dollars for his appearance.
8. The film differs very much from the novel.
The novel didn’t center so much on the characters as it did the events that happened throughout book and how they affected the characters.
7. It’s kind of prophetic that Downey Jr. played a drug addict in the film.
He already had a drug habit at this point but eventually it would get a lot worse and would eventually land him in jail.
6. The film was made and released about two years after the source novel had been published.
That seems like a quick turnaround from publishing the book to making the movie. Someone must have been impressed by the story.
5. There were a lot of arguments over how much decadence would be shown in the film.
By the standards of the current time period the level of decadence wasn’t quite that high, but back then it was a little different.
4. The film had a lot of different titles depending on which country it was shown in.
For example, in Argentina it was Corruption in Beverly Hills, while in Denmark it was Life in the Fast Lane, while Germany it was Under Zero.
3. There was an attempt to appeal to McCarthy’s teenage fans without upsetting the older audience members.
They didn’t want to show too much to turn off one fan base but still had to satisfy another one so McCarthy was kept as the good guy trying to help his friend while Clay was shown in a much more sympathetic light.
2. The three male leads have worked together before and since.
McCarthy and Spader were in Pretty in Pink together while Downey Jr. and Spader were in Avengers: The Age of Ultron.
1. There’s a rumor one of the characters was based on the author of the source book.
It wouldn’t be too presumptuous to think that an author was writing about their own life experiences. At this point it’s more of a rumor though.
It’s an interesting movie and worth a look.
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