Trivia / City of God

• Amateur Cast: The only professional actor with years of filming experience was Matheus Nachtergaele, who played Carrot. Most of the remaining cast were from real-life favelas, and in some cases, even the real-life City of God favela itself. According to Meirelles, amateur actors were used for two reasons: the lack of available professional black actors, and the desire for authenticity.
• The Cast Showoff: Seu Jorge, who plays Knockout Ned, is a samba-soul singer with cult status in Brazil. One of his songs can be found in the soundtrack.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • In order to increase the tension between Lil' Dice and Goose, acting coach Fátima Toledo told teenager Renato de Souza to bully Douglas Silva for 15 days. In the scene where Marreco slaps Dadinho, Silva started crying and threatened to abandon the movie, so the angry look he gives to Marreco in the movie is real.
  • To prepare the Runt for the scene in which he cries when Zé shoots him in the foot, Toledo worked with the child—who had never acted before—and discovered his biggest fear was having a toothache. So, when the time came to shoot the scene, she told him to just remember his toothache, and when he was shot in the foot to pretend his toothache pain had moved to his foot.
• Throw It In!:
  • The praying before the gang war breaks out wasn't scripted, but the actors included it since the drug dealers usually do it in real life.
  • When we hear Rocket talking to Marina about how "he never took a hot bath", that was not scripted. Actually, that was the actors talking off camera, during a pause in the shooting, when the boy (who lived on the slums) was telling her about his life.
  • The final scene when the littlest child runs to go with the Runts (Caixa Baixa) and comes back to pick up his shoe was also unplanned.
• Write Who You Know: Rocket was based on a composite of Paulo Lins, the author of the book Cidade de Deus, and a childhood friend of his who dreamed of becoming a photographer.

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