Trivia for
What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) More at IMDbPro »

• Darlene Cates was chosen for the part of Bonnie Grape after a casting director contacted the "Sally Jessy Raphael" (1985) show and was sent a tape of her appearance as a guest a few months earlier.
  
  
• The picture of Mrs. Grape as a young woman is a real life picture of Darlene Cates as a young woman.
  
  
• Despite the fact that animal protection agents were onset to monitor the wellbeing of the grasshopper Arnie decapitates in the letterbox, Leonardo DiCaprio accidentally killed it.
  
  
• Leonardo DiCaprio said that playing Arnie was "the most fun I've ever had".
  
  
• Johnny Depp felt bad about having to ridicule Darlene Cates's character "Momma" and would often apologize to her after shooting. Depp once said to Cates, "Man, I want you to know how much I hated having to say those things about you, or about your character."
  
  
• Leonardo DiCaprio created Arnie's trademark flicking his finger against his nose, describing it as a sort of "brain wipe... like Arnie is massaging the inside of his brain."
  
  
• The house which served as the interior of the Grape residence was also the set of the Roadie (1980).
  
  
• During the scene where Darlene Cates (Momma) climbed the staircase, she climbed only the first two or three steps. This footage was reused to show her climbing the entire staircase. The room which served as her upstairs bedroom was actually a downstairs room.
  
  

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