Trivia for
Risky Business (1983) More at IMDbPro »

• In an effort for Tom Cruise to look more "teenage" in appearance, the producers of Risky Business (1983) put him though an unusual bit of physical training. Cruise worked out 7 days a week in order to lose ten pounds. Once that had been accomplished, he immediately ceased working out and ate extremely fatty foods in order to add a layer of baby fat. This is how he achieved that "fresh-faced" teenage look.
  
  
• Among the actors who auditioned for the role of Joel were Tom Hanks and Nicolas Cage.
  
  
• At Joel's brothel party the song "Swamp" by the Talking Heads plays in the background - one line of the song contains the phrase "Risky Business".
  
  
• Tangerine Dream based parts of the film's score on material from their previous albums, particularly the album "Force Majeure": The title track is the basis for Lana's theme, and the intro to "Cloudburst Flight" was reused for "Guido the Killer Pimp". "No Future (Get off the Babysitter)" is based on the title track to the album "Exit".
  
  
• Timothy Hutton was the first choice for the role of Joel, but turned it down.
  
  
• This is Curtis Armstrong's first movie.
  
  
• Cameo: [Sean Penn] as the man sitting in the passenger seat as Joel first takes the Porsche for a spin. The cameo was a favor for director Paul Brickman.
  
  
• The dance scene where Joel dances to "Old Time Rock N' Roll" was completely improvised. In the script Tom Cruise was simply instructed to "dance to rock music".
  
  
• The exhaust and engine sounds were dubbed from another Porsche 928 that had a hole in its rear muffler, therefore created much louder sound that a stock 928.
  
  
• The sunglasses Joel wears are the Ray-Ban Wayfarer model. Annual sales of Wayfarers were languishing as of 1983 but skyrocketed 2000% after the movie's release.
  
  
• Kim Basinger was offered and turned down the role of Lana. She stated that "it was the biggest error of my life having turn down a notable role". Basinger, specifically did The Man Who Loved Women (1983) instead of this film.
  
  
• In the DVD commentary, Diane Lane says that Tom Cruise got the script for the film while shooting The Outsiders (1983) and had asked Lane to audition for the role of Lana. Her father later told the producers there was "no way his daughter was playing a twenty-something hooker".
  
  

• SPOILER: Writer/Director Paul Brickman had a completely different ending for the film with a rather pessimistic tone, with Joel being denied admission to Princeton and he and Lana sitting on the roof of a building overlooking the city pondering his future and hers, and for once Lana lets her guard down. The studio however, wanted a "feel good" ending, because this was the popular theme of teen movies at the time, so both versions were shot and shown to a test audience and it was agreed that their preference would be the ending for the film.
  
  

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