Trivia / Last Night in Soho

• Actor-Inspired Element: Anya Taylor Joy suggested Sandie sing "Downtown" acapella for the audition scene. They did other takes with accompaniment but that was the one used in the film.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $43 million. Box office, $22.1 million.
• Cast the Expert: For the Halloween scene in the nightclub, several extras were cast from the London College of Fashion and were told to "go wild" with their costumes.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Edgar Wright initially wanted Anya Taylor-Joy to play the meek Ellie, with a different actress playing the more vivacious Sandie. He changed his mind after seeing she had played similar more-subdued roles in the past and wanted to give her a challenge.
• The Cast Showoff: Anya Taylor-Joy does her own singing when Sandie performs in the film.
• Creator's Oddball: For director Edgar Wright. This film is a lot darker and more serious than his last horror film (which was a comedy at its core), or any of his other films for that matter.
• Development Gag: An odd example, but Jocasta is the name Wright's mother would have given him if he was born a girl.
• Fake Brit: New Zealander Thomasin McKenzie plays a young Englishwoman.
• Fake Irish: Margaret Nolan puts on an Irish accent to play the Sage Barmaid.
• In Memoriam: The film opens with "For Diana", a dedication to Diana Rigg who passed away on September 10, 2020. The end credits contain a dedication to Margaret Nolan who passed away on October 5, 2020.
• Looping Lines: Edgar Wright described getting Diana Rigg to do this in the last days of her life.
• Making Use of the Twin: The scene where Eloise first sees Sandie through the mirror is done practically. To achieve the mirror effect, the cloakroom attendant is played by twins James Phelps and Oliver Phelps, who played Fred and George Weasley in the Harry Potter film series.
• No Stunt Double: Terence Stamp did the first part of the scene where his character is hit by a car himself.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Edgar Wright's reason for casting Anya Taylor-Joy as Sandie. He had wanted her for Eloise until seeing Split and realizing, along with The VVitch, that she had frequently played a sort of innocent Final Girl and wanted her for the Femme Fatale instead.
  • Also, considering his most iconic role, having Matt Smith play a superficially charming pimp who exploits Sandie for personal gain and tries to kill her is definitely against type for him.
  • Terence Stamp, best known for villainous roles such as General Zod, plays a mildly creepy but ultimately non-villainous ex-cop.
• Playing with Character Type: Sam Claflin, who has recently been playing villanous jerkasses like Oswald Mosely and Mycroft, is Gentlemen No. 5 (AKA Terrence Stamp's younger self), who is shown to be creepy at first but suddenly shows a caring side for Sandie and tries to get her to leave the business.
• Release Date Change: The film was originally scheduled for release on September 25, 2020, but was delayed thrice as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic; first to April 23, 2021, then to October 22, and finally to October 29.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, the flashback scenes were going to have no dialogue, only music, to make them feel more like dreams. This was changed when co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns said it was essential the audience "fall in love with Sandie", and that it would be much harder to do this if they never heard her speak.
  • In the epilogue, Ellie was going to hug Jocasta too, implying they became friends. Test audiences apparently hated that, they got several cards saying "she shouldn't hug the mean girl". Similarly, the ending was going to show Sandie's reflection in the mirror as something slightly more sinister but they recrafted it to make it more positive.
• Working Title: Other titles considered for the film included Red Light Area and The Night Has a Thousand Eyes. Wright scrapped the latter when his Swedish girlfriend told him that there already was a Swedish horror film called The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (Natten har tusen ögon).
• Write What You Know: Co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns incorporated a number of her own experiences as a young woman living in London (such as the lecherous taxi driver and the awful pick-up lines) into the script. She also worked as a barmaid in The Toucan for five years. Edgar Wright based Eloise on his mother, who sees ghosts and the shame Eloise feels for her visions and John's somewhat inexplicit understanding of her is based on that Wright would never disbelieve his mother as a child while being very conscious about not telling anyone.

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