Trivia for
Barfly (1987) More at IMDbPro »

• Charles Bukowski wanted Sean Penn to star as protagonist Henry Chinaski, but Penn insisted that Dennis Hopper direct the film. Bukowski had written the screenplay for Barbet Schroeder, who had filmed him for French TV years before, and would not surrender it to Hopper, whom he despised as gold-chain-wearing Hollywood phony. Bukowski and Penn became friends for the rest of his life.
  
  
• This film was almost never made because the financially-strapped Cannon films was on the verge of bankruptcy at the time (it went out of business a little more than a year later). Producer Fred Fuchs brought his friend and producing partner Francis Ford Coppola's into the project and got the film made.
  
  
• There is no original score for this film. The film's soundtrack was mostly based on original source music specially selected by Associate Producer/Music Supervisor Jack Baran, with the exception of a few classical pieces selected by Mickey Rourke.
  
  
• Composer Trevor Jones was considered to write original music for this film, but director Barbet Schroeder felt that source music was more suited for the film's authenticity.
  
  
• The film was shot using authentic locations around Los Angeles. All the shots in the bar, the exteriors, and the apartments featured throughout the film.
  
  
• 'Helen Hunt' was originally cast as Tully Sorenson, but Schroeder felt that the part needed an actress with a little more experience to play opposite Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway.
  
  
• When they were filming the bar scene where Chinaski meets Wanda, as Mickey Rourke passed along the bar past Charles Bukowski, who was making a cameo appearance, the Buk spat the beer in his mouth right into the beer bottle in his hand, something that he had never done before and felt couldn't be done but once in a lifetime. Barbet Schroeder was unimpressed and used an alternate take of the shot.
  
  
• The apartment building where Wanda's apartment was located was an actual building where Charles Bukowski and his lover Jane Baker Cooley, the real-life counterparts to Henry and Wanda, had lived. No one knew this until Bukowski, who was watching the filming, remembered.
  
  
• Mickey Rourke's voice characterization is an approximation of Charles Bukowski's own voice.
  
  
• In its obituary of Bukowski, "The New York Post" used a photo of Mickey Rourke as Henry Chinaski in "Barfly" instead of a photo of the poet himself.
  
  
• Contrary to popular belief, Bukowski thought that Rourke's performance was 'mis-done' to begin with, but grew to like his depiction of Chinaski as the production continued. Verified in the booklet accompanying 'The Charles Bukowski Tapes' on DVD.
  
  
• Cannon had restrictive bank covenants which limited the number of films it could make during periods of financial distress, which it was experiencing at the time. Because of expensive forward commitments to other stars on other films, Cannon decided to exclude "Barfly" from its production slate, because Cannon would have otherwise been forced to abandon another film in its place which had substantially greater monetary penalties to its star for non-production. The film was ultimately produced because Barbet Schroeder appeared at the Cannon offices one day with a battery powered portable saw and threatened to cut off his finger unless Cannon reconsidered its decision and agreed to make the film, stating that he (Barbet) was represented by the law firm of Black and Decker and would be forced cut off his finger to show to the world that Cannon was cutting off a piece of him by abandoning the film. Cannon (to its credit) decided that violating its banking covenants was the lesser evil compared to denying birth to what was ultimately to prove be a classic and important artistic work. Fred Roos and Francis Ford Coppola were certainly important components in ultimately shaping the business plan going forward, but the decision was irrevocably made and committed to the day that Barbet showed up in the offices with both a portable battery powered saw and the will and determination to use it exactly as he said he would if the decision to abort the film was not rescinded that morning. This true story was later fictionalized and retold in Charles Bukowski's novel "Hollywood".
  
  

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