How the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed: stills from the set and 16 interesting facts about the film (18 photos)

The drama about patients of a mental hospital became a real hit, despite the fact that literally everything was against this film coming to light.





1. The film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was filmed based on the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey, which was published in 1962 and became a bestseller in the United States.

The famous actor Kirk Douglas had the idea to film this work, which was quickly gaining popularity. And in the end, he acquired the rights to film the book for 47,000 dollars.



Ken Kesey

True, he was in no hurry with the film adaptation. At first, he decided to stage the play on Broadway. Moreover, he played the main role of McMurphy. Unfortunately, few people liked the play, and in the end it flopped.

A year later, Douglas turned to the Czechoslovak director Milos Forman to make a film based on the work of Ken Kesey. Douglas sent the book to the director, but he did not receive it, since it was confiscated at customs.

But if this issue was somehow resolved, problems arose with the studios. Nobody wanted to take on a film about mentally ill people, considering it a completely failed idea.





Kirk Douglas and Michael Douglas

Upset Kirk Douglas was about to resell the rights to the film adaptation, when suddenly his son Michael Douglas, who was still studying at the university at the time, asked his father not to do this, but to transfer the project to him.

2. During the filming of the series "The Streets of San Francisco", Michael Douglas met producer Sol Seltz, whom he offered to work on the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". As it turned out, Sol Seltz was also a fan of this work, and he happily agreed to take part in the film adaptation.



Milos Forman

When it came to finding a director, the producers decided to choose Milos Forman, who was once chosen by Michael Douglas's father. Moreover, as it turned out, Michael was not even aware that his father had already talked to Forman about the film adaptation.

Douglas and Seltz simply really liked the director's professional approach. And most importantly, Forman took little money for his services compared to other directors. Yes, the director was broke at the time, so it would have been a sin to refuse such an offer.

3. Ken Kesey himself was invited as a screenwriter, but strangely enough, the writer's version of the script did not satisfy the director Milos Forman. Then Michael decided to turn to screenwriter Bo Goldman.



The new version of the script satisfied the producers and the director, but the writer Ken Kesey himself had a negative attitude towards the new version of the script from the novice author. As a result, Ken Kesey refused to participate in the film adaptation.

4. But the problem with finding a studio did not go away. No one wanted to finance this project, since everyone continued to consider it a sure failure.

As a result, Douglas and Seltz took a desperate step and shelled out $4 million for the film from their own funds.

5. Douglas and Seltz saw only Jack Nicholson in the lead role. In their opinion, it was necessary to save on everything, but not on the main actor. In the end, they managed to agree with Jack Nicholson on a fee of $1 million and a percentage of the rental.



And it seemed that things were moving forward, but then another problem arose. Nicholson had a very busy schedule, because of which the filming of the film had to be postponed for another six months.

6. One of the psychos in the film was played by a young Danny DeVito, for whom the role in this film was the first in his film career. Danny was a friend and neighbor of Michael Douglas. Moreover, he had already played a psycho in theatrical productions, so Douglas considered that he was the best fit for this role.



Delos Smith and Mimi Sarkisian were selected according to the same principle, because they had also previously played psychos on Broadway.

7. In addition to Danny DeVito, this film became the debut and breakthrough for many other now famous actors. Take Christopher Lloyd, Brad Douriff and Vincent Schiavelli, for example.



8. For the role of "Chief" Bromden, Michael Douglas cast Will Sampson, whom he found by chance through a used car salesman. He just happened to tell his interlocutor that he was looking for a big guy of Indian descent.



This was not an easy task, because Native Americans were mostly small people. But after some time, Douglas received a call and was informed that a forester of Indian descent, 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 meters) tall, was on his way to see him. This was a great success for Douglas.

9. Many famous actresses were invited to play the role of Mildred Ratched's sister, such as Geraldine Page, Ellen Bursty, etc. But they all ultimately refused the offer after reading the script.

But suddenly Milos Forman noticed 40-year-old actress Louise Fletcher in the film "Thieves Like Us". Fletcher herself was not a particularly famous actress, and was remembered by some viewers only from television shows in the 60s, after which she dropped out of the filming process for a long time.



Milos made an appointment with the actress, and after talking to her, he realized that Fletcher was just perfect for the role of Nurse Ratched. And most importantly, she herself happily agreed to this role.

The actress herself later admitted that people she met on the street kept telling her how much they hated her.



In general, I'm always amazed by people who confuse an actor with his character. But one thing is for sure. If Louise was hated, it means she played her role perfectly.

10. Sidney Lassick, who played the sick Charlie Cheswick, got into the role so well that the crew, including the director himself, began to seriously worry about his mental health.



11. Forman decided that it would be best to shoot the entire film in the interiors of a real mental hospital. Moreover, such a decision would save a lot of money on decorations, because the budget of the film was very limited.

As a result, the producers visited several psychiatric clinics until they settled on one of them, which was located in Oregon. It was a great stroke of luck that the hospital staff had read Ken Kesey's novel, so they gladly agreed to provide the filmmakers with one of their empty departments.



The hospital's chief physician, Dr. Dean Brooks, sincerely believed that filming the movie would have a positive therapeutic effect. Moreover, he was interested in participating in the filming of a movie about patients of a psychiatric hospital. As a result, he not only became a consultant for the movie, but also played a small role of Dr. Spivey in the movie. He was even allowed to improvise, since Brooks noted that his character was saying things that were too wrong according to the script.



In general, Dean Brooks was quite an innovator. He was constantly introducing some innovations that, in his opinion, could cause a positive therapeutic effect. For example, he allowed patients to wear their own clothes instead of hospital gowns, and even took them on nature trips.

12. By the way, with Dr. Brooks's permission, some real patients of the clinic were used as extras and assistants. For this, Dr. Dean Brooks was strongly criticized by his colleagues.



But it really did have a positive effect. The patients approached the filming process with full responsibility, and many of them showed clear improvements. Moreover, one of the patients even got rid of his stutter.

13. Jack Nicholson showed up on set with a thick beard because he thought it would suit his character perfectly. But director Milos Forman didn't like the idea. As a result, the actor and director had a falling out, to the point that they simply stopped communicating. And their communication was through cameraman Bill Butler.



14. The fishing scene was filmed for a whole week, which had a huge impact on the actors' health. As it turned out, all the actors involved except Jack Nicholson suffered from seasickness.15. To better get into character, the actors practically lived in the ward, communicating with both the doctors and the patients. Moreover, they regularly attended therapy sessions and ate the same food as the patients.



16. The film premiered in 1975. The film was a huge box office success, grossing $109 million on a budget of only $4 million.

The film itself won five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.



In addition, the film won six Golden Globes, in the same categories, as well as for Best Film Debut (Brad Douriff).

But that's not all, because in addition to the above awards, the film won such awards as "Cesar", "BAFTA", "Grammy", "Bodil" and others.

And in 1987, director Milos Forman even came to the Soviet Union to present his film to our audience. Everyone was wildly delighted with the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", and Milos Forman even had tears in his eyes.

The writer Ken Kesey himself was simply furious because his script was so badly changed, so he demanded compensation in the form of 800 thousand dollars, as well as 5% of the box office receipts. Moreover, according to his admission, he never watched the film in its entirety.