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Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

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• Nicolas Cage researched his character by binge drinking and visiting many hospitalized career alcoholics. Elisabeth Shue associated with prostitutes and interviewed them on the strip in Las Vegas.
  
  
• Author John O'Brien, on whose novel this movie is based, committed suicide two weeks after the movie went into production. Director Mike Figgis contemplated abandoning the project, but decided the film would make a good memorial for O'Brien.
  
  
• Besides composing the score for the film, director Mike Figgis also played the trumpet and keyboards on the film's soundtrack.
  
  

• Naomi Campbell had appearances in the film that were edited out before its release.
  
  
• The movie that Ben and Sera are watching when they lie by the pool at the Desert Hotel is The Third Man (1949).
  
  
• To get ready for his role, Nicolas Cage would film himself drunk to study his speech patterns.
  
  
• In one scene near the start of the film set in a Los Angeles restaurant, two film producers (maybe agents) are having dinner with two actresses. One of the actresses, played by Emily Procter, says "I think the nicest thing about the film actually is that we get to handle guns, and I had never done that before". Years later, she would portrays a ballistics expert on "CSI: Miami" (2002).
  
  
• In at least two scenes taxis are shown with an advertisement on the roof hoarding depicting a brand called "Red Mullet" - the name of director Mike Figgis's production company and it's his face in the ad.
  
  
• The Rolex that Ben wears in the film is John O'Brien's actual watch.
  
  
• Permits were not issued for some street scenes. Hence, some scenes were done in one shot, to avoid any police contact.
  
  
• The "supermarket sweep" with Ben whistling his suicide death note scene was voted Empire magazines eighth greatest drunk scene in movie history (2005).
  
  
• Ben doesn't eat a single thing during the entire film. This reinforces his dependence on alcohol as chronic alcoholics usually forget to eat or can't force food down. During the restaurant scene he puts spaghetti on his fork but doesn't eat it. And when Sera fixes him rice, he eats an ice cube instead.
  
  
• The bartender at the breakfast/biker bar that wipes the blood from Ben's face is played by Julian Lennon, son of John Lennon. The dark-haired prostitute at the casino bar is played by Law and Order SVU's Mariska Hargitay. The last cab driver in the movie, who tells Sera she is a "pretty young lady who can get any man she wants," is played by legendary soul singer Lou Rawls.
  
  

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