Trivia for
Rated X (2000) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

• Butch Norton from The Eels and Slash from Velvet Revolver both worked on the soundtrack for the film.
  
  
• Sean Penn was in talks to direct a big budget theatrical film version of David McCumber's book about the Mitchell Brothers in the late 1990s, which was set to star Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson as Jim and Artie respectively. After that project fell through, brothers Alec Baldwin and William Baldwin tried to raise the capital to make the film, but were unable to do so.
  
  
• The real Jim Mitchell was invited to work on the film as a historical consultant but he declined. However, Artie Mitchell's second wife, Karen (played by Nicole de Boer) did work on the film.
  
  
• Initially, Showtime sent the script to Charlie Sheen and asked him to play Artie. At that time they had no one in mind for Jim. Sheen then sent the script on to Emilio Estevez, who loved it and expressed a desire to direct. Sheen then got back to Showtime, telling them he wouldn't appear unless Emilio bought acted and directed.
  
  
• Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez shaved their heads for the roles as they didn't want to wear bald caps.
  
  
• Prep time for the film was only 6 weeks. Once production began, Showtime wanted the film to be shot in only 24 days, but director Emilio Estevez and actor Charlie Sheen both returned part of their salaries so as to ensure they could get a longer shoot from the production company. They wanted 50 days, but in the end, the film was shot in 36 days.
  
  
• The home movie footage which opens the film was shot on the last day of filming using 20 year old 8mm film that the prop man, Michael Followes found in his freezer.
  
  
• The opening and closing sequences of the film were constructed using a variety of different film stocks, shooting at different speeds, intercutting with still photographs, using jarring edits with seem to break continuity, using dutch angles, and employing various other techniques. Director Emilio Estevez has said that these scenes were modeled on similar looking scenes in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991), The Doors (1991), Natural Born Killers (1994), Nixon (1995) and U Turn (1997).
  
  
• The young Jim Mitchell is played by Taylor Estevez, Emilio Estevez's son. Emilio plays the older Jim Mitchell.
  
  
• Actor Terry O'Quinn himself wrote the song sung by J.R. Mitchell near the start of the film.
  
  
• In the scene where Jim (Emilio Estevez) is shooting a film and Artie (Charlie Sheen) arrives on the set, they hug and fall onto a bed, and the film jumps several times, along with a number of quick whiteouts. This effect was not intentional. Director of photography Paul Sarossy forgot to charge the battery on the Steadicam, and as it ran out, it produced this effect. Sarossy was deeply upset by his mistake, but when Estevez saw the footage, he liked it, and decided to use the same technique several times in the film.
  
  
• In the scene during the premier of Behind the Green Door (1972), as the crew realizes that the wrong reel is being shown, Adrienne (Danielle Brett) looks like she's wearing a gold dress. She is in fact naked, and her upper torso is actually painted gold.
  
  
• The reason there is no footage from Behind the Green Door (1972) in the film is because Showtime was unable to acquire the rights to show even recreations of any part of it.
  
  
• During the scene where Jim (Emilio Estevez) and Meredith (Megan Ward) are talking at Artie (Charlie Sheen) and Karen's (Nicole de Boer) wedding, a volleyball game can be seen going on behind them. This was a real game, as the players had refused to stop playing to accommodate the filmmakers.
  
  

Related Links