Trivia / Death Becomes Her

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Although the effects work became gruelling for her, Meryl Streep took the role because it was, in her words "too original to pass up". At this point in her career, she had grown sick of her string of Oscar Bait dramas and longed to go against type and do more comedies.
• Creator Backlash:
  • While Meryl Streep doesn't hate the movie as a whole, she did hate the filming process and having to tailor her acting to the special effects, like having to pretend a lampstand was Goldie Hawn and reshooting scenes to line up with the effect used to make her body look twisted. Streep has since vowed never again to work on another movie that relied heavily on CGI-made special effects.
  • Although Goldie Hawn overall loved the film, she significantly preferred the original ending, finding it much more interesting and poignant, and was disappointed it didn’t test well enough to be used. (Streep, on the other hand, was partial to the revised ending.)
  • Robert Zemeckis stated in an interview that he felt he had "overproduced" the film and that it should have been a smaller production. He also felt it was wrong for Madeline and Helen to reconcile and that it should have ended with them killing each other, something more akin to Tales from the Crypt.
• Creator Couple: Robert Zemeckis' then-wife Mary Ellen Trainor appears as Vivian Adams, the woman who thanks Ernest for how he made her great aunt look, and is then appalled when he reveals he uses spray paint.
• Deleted Role: Tracey Ullman, a long-time friend of Meryl Streep, had a supporting role as a bartender named Toni who befriends Ernest (and later runs away with him). Despite her character being cut (due to a last minute ending change), she appeared in much of the film's promotional material, including the theatrical trailer (see below) and at least one image.
• Divorced Installment: Much like The Frighteners and From Dusk Till Dawn, the film was originally going to be a sequel to the 1989 Tales from the Crypt movie. The TV theme song was actually used in the trailer, even after the film became stand-alone.
• Irony as She Is Cast:
  • Meryl Streep, a well-known, awarded actress today, plays the role of hammy actress Madeline Ashton. And she pulls it off, too. Because she's Meryl Streep.
  • In-universe example: Madeline is cast in a musical version of Sweet Bird of Youth, which is about an older woman desperately clinging to her youth and beauty and keeps a hot gigolo.
  • Also, Goldie Hawn as the (initially) mousy Helen and Bruce Willis as the weak-willed Ernest.
  • Lisle's dreadful Swedish accent when she imitates Greta Garbo wouldn't be nearly as funny if the actress who plays her wasn't also the daughter of another famous Swedish actress.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer includes several scenes that never made it into the film: a shot of Madeline driving her convertible down a sunny street, some dialogue between Madeline's agent and a young woman at the book party ("Is that someone?" "That's Madeline Ashton. She was a big star in the 60s." "I thought she was dead!"), and Ernest removing Madeline from a freezer and helping her up the mansion stairs ("I feel sweaty!" "That's not sweat, dear. I think you're defrosting"). The latter scene was also featured on the VHS (and later DVD) cover. Two scenes from the film's original ending (featuring Tracey Ullman) were also included: one with Ernest and Toni (Ullman) examining the body of a man slumped over the bar ("Now HE'S dead!"), and Madeline and Helen confronting a sobbing Toni (with Helen hysterically exclaiming, "He's dead? Ernest is dead? EVERYBODY'S dead!").
• Orphaned Reference: The use of Egyptian hieroglyphics on the potion box is a remnant from an early draft of the script where Lisle was actually an immortal Cleopatra.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Bruce Willis playing a cowardly, bumbling Henpecked Husband back when he was in the full swing of badass action heroes. Bonus points for the character being literally impotent.
  • You'd be excused for thinking Tim Burton or The Coen Brothers directed this, but nope, it was Robert Zemeckis. The director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump, everyone! (Like many of his movies, though, there's the Author Appeal of CGI Visual Effects of Awesome.)
• Troubled Production: No major catastrophes, but this movie was made back in the early 90s, when digital effects were still in their infancy. This means that they had to stage the scenes down to the smallest detail, and any slight unplanned movement would ruin a take, which had the effect of exhausting the cast and crew. Later on, Meryl said that while she was proud of the movie and her work in it, never again would she do a film so effects-heavy.
• Uncredited Role: Sydney Pollack portrays the E.R. doctor who examines Madeline.
• Underage Casting:
  • Though her character, Helen Sharp, is portrayed as a 50 year old woman during the majority of the film, Goldie Hawn was actually 46 years old when she shot this film.
  • Meryl Streep likewise was only 43 playing the 50-something Madeline.
  • A form of tongue in cheek, where the 71-year-old Lisle is first assumed to be 38 by Madeline (and gets a dirty look for that assumption). Isabella Rossellini was actually 38 when she filmed her part.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kevin Kline was considered for Ernest, yet asked for too much money. Jeff Bridges auditioned but was turned down.
  • Amalgamated Dynamics created a working animatronic of Meryl Streep with her head twisted backwards, which was capable of movement, blinking and speech. Though the effect ultimately wasn’t lifelike enough to be used for facial closeups (this being the early 90s, where most animatronics were still mostly creatures instead of humans, and used foam latex or fiberglass instead of silicone), the animatronic was used for a few shots showing Madeline from behind (Meryl’s face was superimposed onto her back through blue-screen technology for the rest of the scene). Some of their work elsewhere was kept (mostly makeup prothetics), and co-founder Tom Woodruff Jr. accepted the award for best effects with the CGI team despite this.
  • Earlier versions of the script had a number of scenes and plot elements that never made into the film:
    • In its earliest incarnation, the screenplay bore little resemblance to the final film, being somewhat closer to a gender flipped All of Me. Madeline was an aging Broadway star with a (young, male) entourage, Ernest was a successful Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, and Helen was Doctor Helen Shaw (and a side character). Liesel was an ordinary woman who specialized in exclusive beauty treatments, and made Madeline (and only Madeline) immortal not through magic, but by transferring a Curse — in the form a foul-mouthed ghost named Bert — into her body (explaining that he had inhabited Liesel's body 130 years earlier to prevent himself from going to Hell, and that one cannot age or die while he remains). When Madeline died by Ernest pushing her down the stairs, Bert reanimated her body and prevented her from decomposing; the second act saw the two of them fighting for control of her body, while Ernest searched (unsuccessfully) for a solution amongst religious experts. In the final act, Madeline and Ernest schemed to transfer Bert into the body of Madeline's young lover, only to have a crisis of conscience at the last minute; instead, Madeline made amends with Helen and Ernest, asking their forgiveness for breaking them up and urging them to get back together. The act of atonement purified Madeline's soul and evicted Bert, allowing her to pass away peacefully as herself. The screenplay ended with Ernest and Helen sitting together in a theater, watching a tribute film about Madeline's life.
    • The second version of the screenplay, while far closer to the final film, had a subplot where Ernest befriends a kind female bartender named Toni (played by Tracey Ullman). In the scripted ending, Ernest flees to Toni's bar (with the potion still intact) and she helps him escape Madeline and Helen by faking his death before they run away and start a new life together. The final scene of the movie would have shown Madeline and Helen vacationing in the Swiss Alps, still young and beautiful, but completely bored and miserable. They snark at an elderly couple holding hands, who are revealed to be Toni and Ernest, with Ernest's right hand, which received the potion, still smooth and youthful — showing that Ern has found true happiness in old age, whilst Madeline and Helen are still vain, unhappy, and stuck together. The ending was scrapped in favor of the darker theatrical ending; this was unfortunate for Ullman, as Death Becomes Her was intended to be her big return to film, plus Goldie Hawn preferred this ending, finding it much more interesting and poignant, and was disappointed it wasn't used (although Streep, on the other hand, preferred the revised ending.)
    • The potion was a grey, mercury-like liquid rather than the pink ethereal essence in the finished film.
    • Madeline and Helen met as college students at Radcliffe (rather than in high school), and their feud started because Helen envied Madeline's popularity and success with men. In this treatment, Madeline, while still vain, self-absorbed, and spiteful, was a far less malicious character: Ernest was the only love interest she had stolen from Helen, and she regretted her actions (admitting that she did so out of fear and desperation).
    • Helen did not become an obese, insane cat lady, and didn't take the potion until the film's final act, shortly before her fight with Madeline. (She would have aged reasonably since her last meeting with Madeline, but still would have been beautiful and glamorous enough to seduce Ernest and make Madeline feel insecure at the book party.)
    • Madeline's lover was a Latin cabana boy named Marcello, rather than the blonde frat boy Dakota. He was also given more screentime, including a scene where he and Madeline meet for sex after Ernest leaves for work (during which she discusses her feud with Helen) and another where Madeline calls him immediately after taking the potion to arrange a meetup.
    • There were several brief scenes featuring Madeline's agent at the book party, including one where Madeline talks to him about negotiating an appearance for her on The Hollywood Squares.
    • Several still-living (at the time) celebrities were going to appear in younger form at Lisel's party, including Dick Clark and George Hamilton.
    • When Ernest entered the morgue to look for Madeline, he was supposed to be distracted by a drawer holding the body of a priest, which eerily rolled open on its own (repeatedly). This explains the strange, crying nuns in the hallway, as well as Ernest's sudden conviction that Madeline's resurrection was a "miracle" and a sign from God. (It's unknown whether the scene itself was actually filmed, as the deleted scenes have never been released.)
    • One draft of the script gave more depth to Lisle's character. Originally, she wasn't going to be merely 71, but old beyond imagination. Her deepest desire was to use the potion to preserve the greatest minds and creative talents of the world forever, such as William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln and Max Factor^note founder of a cosmetics company and responsible for the first cosmetics intended specifically for film actors. Unfortunately for her, those great minds came to the same conclusion that Ernest ultimately did: eternal life is not a dream but a nightmare, and she killed them in retaliation. The fact that pretty much the only people interested in the potion were the vain, narcissistic personalities of Hollywood was a bone of contention for her. It brought her wealth, but not the collection of intelligent talent she dreamed of.
    • There was also a draft where it was hinted that Lisel was actually Cleopatra (explaining the Egyptian symbols on the box holding the potion).
    • One proposed ending for the film had Madeline and Helen stealing a car at Lisle's and chasing after Ernest, only to drive off a cliff and crash with a fiery explosion (just like in the staged "accident" Helen had planned earlier in the film). Madeline and Helen would have emerged from the wreckage of the car as charred, smoldering skeletons.
• Working Title: Bruce Willis jokingly suggested My Man Death and It's Death, Baby as titles for the film.

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