Trivia / Splendor in the Grass

• California Doubling: The exterior used for Yale is actually The City of New York's Shepard Hall located in Harlem, New York.
• Career Resurrection: Natalie Wood's career was in decline after a series of bad films at the time. Elia Kazan wrote in his 1997 memoir that the "sages" of the film community declared her "washed up" as an actress when she was just 22, but he still wanted to interview her for his next film. This film gave her a rebound, which was cemented by West Side Story shortly thereafter (the two films were released 8 days apart).
• Darkhorse Casting: Warren Beatty made his film debut, having acted mainly on television.
• Dawson Casting: Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty were approximately 22 and 23 respectively at the time of filming. Elia Kazan decided that the rest of the high school students should be played by actors around the same age, so Bud and Deanie wouldn't look too old compared to them.
• Enforced Method Acting: Natalie Wood had a fear of water, which made the lake scene very uncomfortable for her.
• Hypothetical Casting:
  • Dennis Hopper was considered for Bud Stamper. He named this as one of the roles he wished he'd got.
  • Jane Fonda tested for Deanie. When Elia Kazan asked her if she was ambitious, she said no (even though she was) because "good girls aren't supposed to be ambitious." Fonda believes this was the reason for her not getting the role. Lee Remick was also considered but had to withdraw when she became pregnant.
• Romance on the Set:
  • Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood became an item.
  • Elia Kazan and Barbara Loden were a couple during filming. They had begun their affair several years earlier and had to keep it under wraps since both were married to someone else at the time.
• Star-Making Role: For Warren Beatty.
• Write Who You Know: The film is based on people whom screenwriter William Inge knew while growing up in Kansas in the 1920s. He told the story to Elia Kazan when they were working on a production of Inge's play The Dark at the Top of the Stairs in 1957. They agreed that it would make a good film and that they wanted to work together on it. Inge wrote it first as a novel, then as a screenplay.
• Written-In Infirmity: Right before shooting was set to begin, Pat Hingle suffered devastating injuries when he accidentally fell 54 feet down an elevator shaft in his apartment building. It would take Hingle over a year to fully recover from the accident. In the meantime, however, he decided to go ahead and do the film - he would simply incorporate his limp into the character. "I broke everything," Hingle said later. "I landed upright, so I broke hips and knees and ankles and ribs, and that sort of thing. That lurching walk that Ace Stamper has - that was as good as I could walk."

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