The Shawshank Redemption/Trivia


 * Ability Over Appearance: Traditionally, guys called "Red" are redheads. Initial casting calls had that in mind. The role is played by Morgan Freeman, who would not pick up that nickname naturally but owns the role anyway. It's explained in the film (though not in the novella), that Red's nickname comes from his name, Ellis Redding.
 * Acclaimed Flop: The film did quite poorly at the box office despite good reviews.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: The mug shot shown on Red's parole paperwork is a photo of Morgan Freeman's son Alfonso. Alfonso also has a cameo at the beginning of the movie, he's the inmate who says "Fresh fish! Fresh fish today! We're reeling 'em in!" as the bus carrying Andy comes in.
 * Mean Character, Nice Actor: Quite a few.
 * Captain Hadley is a sadistic prison officer, but his actor Clancy Brown is one of the nicest guys in both the film and TV industry. He described the filming location as "a horrible monument to inhuman treatment of men by men" and stated that he had a problem acting out some of the brutal No Holds Barred Beatdowns he had to dish out to the prisoners.
 * In the same vein, Brown received multiple offers from former corrections officers to help him develop the character, all of which he turned down because he didn't want his performance to reflect badly on real COs.
 * Mark Rolston, the actor who played Boggs (a serial rapist) genuinely seemed overjoyed to be working with everyone in interviews and seems nothing like his character.
 * Bob Gunton, who played Warden Norton, is by all accounts a quite laid-back and chilled out guy (and for real, not in the evil or fake kind of way).
 * Throw It In: Tim Robbins ad-libbed Andy Dufresne turning up the volume on the speaker in defiance of Norton telling him to turn it off.
 * Trope Namer: For Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook. The trope-naming example is done for reasons the audience can sympathize with. Andy is secretly planning to escape from prison and "expose" the warden as a crook. The warden would have him break the law anyway. He says he never broke the law before going to jail, and we see nothing to contradict him.
 * Vindicated by Cable: Back in 1994, it earned just over $28 million at the US box office; it has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television and home video. Ted Turner loved this movie so much, he made sure it was playing on at least one of his cable networks every weekend for about a decade, which helped the film earn back its budget and give it the mainstream recognition it never received while in theaters. You can still find it on TBS or a similar channel, even more than a quarter-century later.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * Tom Hanks turned down the role of Andy Dufresne.
 * As did Kevin Costner, in order to make Waterworld. Needless to say, he regrets it.
 * Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, and Charlie Sheen were all considered to play Andy as well.
 * The role of Tommy Williams was intended for Brad Pitt.
 * Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman, and Robert Redford were all considered to play Red.