Trivia / The American President

• All-Star Cast: Top to bottom filled with veteran name actors.
• California Doubling: The American President is set in Washington, D.C., but principal photography took place at Sony Pictures Studios, Culver Studios and Universal Studios in California.
• Completely Different Title: The film was known as My Dear President in Latin America.
• Fake American: Canadian actor Michael J. Fox plays the American Lewis Rothschild.
• Life Imitates Art: Shepherd tries to call Sydney Ellen Wade, and gets mistaken for a prank caller. In real 2008, after Barack Obama was elected, he made a phone call to veteran Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. She cut the President-Elect off, saying "I'm sorry but I think this is a joke from one of the South Florida radio stations known for these pranks," and then hung up. Within minutes, Obama's then Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel called her to say that President-Elect Obama wanted to speak with her...and she hung up on him too. Obama had to ask a friend and fellow Congressman of Ros-Lehtinen's to call and convince her that she was not being pranked, and the President-Elect was really trying to call her.
• Production Posse:
  • Sorkin's "good luck charm" Joshua Malina has his usual small role, along with a bunch of other actors who would pop up in later Sorkin projects, including Martin Sheen (A. J./President Bartlet), Anna Deavere Smith (Robin McCall/NSA Nancy McNally), and Nina Siemaszko (Beth Wade/Ellie Bartlet).
  • Rob Reiner brought in some of his frequent collaborators including composer Marc Shaiman and editor Robert Leighton.
• Reality Subtext: This film was made during the Clinton administration, when two main criticisms of the then-president concerned Hillary Clinton's influence in presidential matters, and about Bill Clinton's extramarital affairs (this film notably predates the Monica Lewinsky scandal). The criminal justice bill at the forefront of the plot also mirrors the Violent Crime Control Act, signed into law by Clinton in 1994.
• Recycled Set: The Oval Office set was later used in Independence Day and Nixon.
• What Could Have Been:
  • In an earlier draft of the script, right before his Rousing Speech, Shepherd is having breakfast with Lucy, and he finally finds out the reason why she doesn't speak up in Social Studies; she doesn't agree with a lot of what Shepherd says politically - in fact, she finds herself agreeing with Senator Rumson on some things - and she doesn't want to say so in class, because she doesn't want to embarrass Shepherd. Shepherd is stunned by this, and tells her she'll never embarrass him, and he's her father first and the President second. This scene combines both Author Catchphrase (Shepherd tells Lucy, "The only thing you have to do to make me happy is come home at the end of the day", which Sorkin re-used on Sports Night and The West Wing) and an Ironic Echo (Shepherd unwittingly quotes one of Sydney's lines to Lucy), the latter of which leads to a "Eureka!" Moment that leads to the Rousing Speech. It's not clear if the scene was never filmed, or was filmed and never used.
  • Also in that same draft, at the end, Shepherd makes up with Lewis, Lucy gives her father back his old Social Studies book, which is open to the part of the Constitution that allows for State of the Union speeches, and A.J. calls Shepherd "Andy". Sorkin reworked the first two parts onto The West Wing.
  • Robert Redford was originally cast in the lead role, but was replaced with Michael Douglas after a falling out with Rob Reiner.
  • Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon and Emma Thompson were in talks for the role of Sydney.

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