Malcolm X - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[duane]

Roger Guinver Smith, who had a small role in this film as an accomplice of Malcolm during his criminal days, played "Smiley", a man selling photographs of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Do the Right Thing (1989), also directed by Spike Lee.

[veronica]

The scene where Betty Shabazz argues with Malcolm about his misplaced loyalties to Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam were contrived mostly to add dramatic effect to the film. The real-life Shabazz said the scene was inaccurate, as she and Malcolm never argued nor raised their voices at one another and she supported her husband at every turn.

[eli]

Denzel Washington (Malcolm X) and another actor in this film, Keith Randolph Smith (Brother Gene), went on to star in, and work on the New York revival of "Fences" with Viola Davis. Washington played Troy Maxon; Smith was his understudy.

[lynn]

Spike Lee encountered difficulty in securing a sufficient budget. Lee told Warner Bros. and the bond company that a budget of over 30 million dollars was necessary; the studio disagreed, and offered a lower amount. Following advice from fellow director Francis Ford Coppola, Lee "got the movie company pregnant," taking it far enough along into actual production to attempt to force the studio to increase the budget. The film, initially budgeted at 28 million dollars, climbed to nearly 33 million dollars. Lee contributed two million dollars of his own three million dollar salary. Completion Bond Company, which assumed financial control in January 1992, refused to approve any more expenditures; in addition, the studio and bond company instructed Lee that the film could be no longer than two hours and fifteen minutes in length; the resulting conflict caused the project to be shut down in post-production. The film was saved by the financial intervention of prominent black Americans, some of whom appear in the film: Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Janet Jackson, Prince, and Peggy Cooper Cafritz, founder of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. Their contributions were made as donations; as Lee noted, "This is not a loan. They are not investing in the film. These are black folks with some money, who came to the rescue of the movie. As a result, this film will be my version. Not the bond company's version, not Warner Brothers'. I will do the film the way it ought to be, and it will be over three hours." The actions of such prominent members of the African American community giving their money helped finish the project as Lee envisioned it.