Trivia / Factory Girl

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $7 million. Box office, $3,572,632.
• Creator Backlash: Lou Reed hated the film. He told The New York Daily News,
  I read that script. It's one of the most disgusting, foul things I've seen, by any illiterate retard, in a long time. There's no limit to how low some people will go to write something to make money...They're all a bunch of whores.
• Creator Killer: The film put a major dent in director George Hickenlooper's career, who only managed to do one more film, Casino Jack, four years later in 2010 before dying that same year from an overdose of painkillers mixed with alcohol.
• Deleted Role: This was Mary-Kate Olsen's first project without her sister, Ashley Olsen. She appears in a party scene, in the background, but her scenes were deleted from the final cut.
• Fake American: Sienna Miller (English) plays Edie Sedgwick, Hayden Christensen (Canadian) plays a New Yorker and Guy Pearce (Australian) plays Andy Warhol.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: The scene where Edie tells The Musician about the death of her brothers was completely improvised by Sienna Miller based on her knowledge of Edie.
• Romance on the Set: Rumors circulated that Sienna Miller and Hayden Christensen, who were reportedly in a relationship at the time, had sex for real onscreen. Her publicist denied the rumor saying their lovemaking was "merely good acting." She added, "When you do a love scene there is a minimum of five people in the room. There's no real sex and the scene proves she knows how to give a good performance." When reporters asked Christensen about it, he merely replied, "I can't comment. You'll have to ask Sienna about it."
• Saved from Development Hell: Plans for an Edie Sedwick biopic had been kicking around since The '80s. Linda Fiorentino was an early candidate. Warren Beatty was to produce a biopic with Bob Fosse directing and starring either Michelle Pfeiffer or Molly Ringwald. Mike Nichols and Natalie Portman were to make a biopic, but they made Closer instead.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: Bob Dylan threatened to sue the producers for defamation, claiming that the film portrayed him as responsible for Edie Sedgwick's death. Thus, any mention of Dylan was omitted from the script and Hayden Christensen is called Billy Quinn in dialogue and billed in the credits only as "Musician."
• Star-Derailing Role: This film was the beginning of Hayden Christensen's drought in roles since the Star Wars prequel trilogy had come to an end, and he had earned Razzies and snark for his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader for the last two movies (though Christensen was also intentionally minimizing his career after making a few investments).
• What Could Have Been:
  • Katie Holmes was originally set to play Edie Sedgwick, but dropped out due to her conflicting religious beliefs with the character's drug-addiction. Holmes also became pregnant right before filming was scheduled to begin. Lindsay Lohan was considered for the lead role, and even screen tested for the part in 2005, but producers felt she was not right.

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