Top 10 Stanley Kubrick Trivia

Kicking off our list is a factoid about the famed filmmaker’s school days. Despite the fact that Kubrick was widely considered one of the greatest directors ever, he – like fellow genius Einstein – did poorly in school. Actually, he was at the bottom of his class, and was denied entry into University. Undeterred, he regularly sat in on classes at Columbia and read psychology, which proved useful on the job!

Kubrick regularly chose to adapt existing novels to the big screen. But, despite his legendary status and critical acclaim, his work always upset the authors, as it was unfaithful to the source material. The only Kubrick films that weren’t based on novels were, “Fear and Desire,” “Killer’s Kiss,” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Recognize that famous beard? Kubrick grew it during the making of 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” then decided to keep it as a permanent fixture. He also kept his hair long, and had a wardrobe full of identical shirts and pants. As if that weren’t quirky enough, Kubrick was a cat-lover – to the point where he had 16 roaming around his house. When he came home from long shoots, he would let them lay around his editing room to make up for the time he was gone.

Aside from his aforementioned quirks, what made Kubrick extra-special was his preference for keeping things old school. For example, he favored mono over stereo sound, and resorted to dual channel in only three of his films: “Spartacus,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “Eyes Wide Shut.” As far as writing went, he hated to type and always used pen and paper.

According to one biographer, Kubrick consistently despised actors that changed dialogue or ad-libbed new material. Apparently, Kubrick only bent a little for two actors: Peter Sellers, who starred in “Lolita” and “Dr. Strangelove,” and R. Lee Ermey from “Full Metal Jacket.” Another of Kubrick’s consistent habits? Having a pivotal movie scene take place in a washroom. Seriously, what gives?

Only select actors got Kubrick’s “special treatment,” but Shelley Duvall was not one of them – in fact, it was the polar opposite. While filming “The Shining,” Kubrick regularly mistreated her to get her to act the part of a terrified wife. Not only did that trauma come across on-screen, it also caused Duvall to lose hair from the stress – which she then gave to Kubrick as a memento.

As we’ve already suggested, Kubrick was a fan of the dark side of human nature and the theme of dehumanization – which meant that war was the perfect subject. This was evidenced by “Paths of Glory,” which took on WWI, “Spartacus,” which tackled the Roman slave rebellion, “Dr. Strangelove,” which confronted the Cold War, and “Full Metal Jacket” which dealt with the Vietnam War. Even “2001: A Space Odyssey” existed in a nuclear war era, while “A Clockwork Orange” was set in a post-apocalyptic period.

During Kubrick’s 48 years in the biz, he directed just 16 films, instead spending much of his time on various unrealized projects. For example, his biographical film “Napoleon” was overlooked in favor of “Waterloo,” “Full Metal Jacket” was delayed by seven years, and competed with “Platoon,” and finally he shelved “The Aryan Papers” following the release of “Schindler’s List,” which caused a 12-year gap in his career before 1999’s “Eyes Wide Shut.”

According to Kubrick’s wife, one of his favorite movies was 1979’s “The Jerk.” His love for that film led him to consider making “Eyes Wide Shut” a dark sex comedy starring Steve Martin. Kubrick was so serious he even met with Martin to discuss the project. It’s anyone’s guess why the idea fell apart…

Taking the top spot on our trivia list is a factoid about Kubrick’s indisputable 1971 masterpiece “A Clockwork Orange.” Fact is: the movie was not well-received upon its UK release. Actually, that’s putting it mildly: angry letters and bitter protestors forced him to run damage control and prompted him to have the studio pull the controversial picture from theaters prematurely. It did just fine in America though…

Which piece of Stanley Kubrick trivia interests you the most? Any other tidbits you’d like to add to the thread? For more entertaining videos, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.