Trivia / The Hole

• Awesome, Dear Boy: A surprising amount of boys volunteered to appear nude for the scene where Frankie walks through the boys' changing room.
• Contractual Purity: After having just done The Phantom Menace and Princess of Thieves, Keira Knightley may have been hoping to avoid this trope, with a brief nude scene while she was underage. It seemed to work as she was given roles in Pirates of the Caribbean, but didn't have trouble getting other roles in grittier films like The Jacket or Domino.
• Creator Backlash: Laurence Fox was a little uncomfortable doing the scene where Geoff and Mike essentially molest Frankie - as Keira Knightley was only fifteen at the time.
• Dawson Casting: Desmond Harrington was twenty four playing the seventeen-year-old Mike. Laurence Fox was twenty two as Geoff. Daniel Brocklebank was twenty one as Martyn. Thora Birch was borderline, being nineteen. By contrast Keira Knightley was only fifteen.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Philippa watches the tape of her second session with Liz. She discovers she left it running and Liz makes a sarcastic comment while she's waving to Philippa outside.
  • Police looking for the teens in the woods. One of them stops in front of the bunker. Liz notices but then quickly pretends she didn't see anything.
  • Philippa being shown Geoff and Frankie's bodies at once in the morgue.
• Development Hell: Nick Hamm had wanted to make the film for seven years.
• Fake Brit: Thora Birch (American) as Liz does a passable English accent. South African actress Embeth Davidtz is much more believable as Dr Horwood.
• Method Acting: Thora Birch lodged in an English boarding school for a day and a night, keeping her accent up, to try and get into the role of Liz.
• Money, Dear Boy: Thora Birch got a highly publicised seven figure salary for her role here, having just come off American Beauty.
• Shrug of God: Thora Birch initially felt that Liz was definitely in love with Mike, but upon a script revision that added in the speech after his death scene, she then changed her mind to feel it was more of an obsession.
• Star-Making Role: This is Keira Knightley's first significant feature film role, and led to her getting Bend It Like Beckham and Pirates of the Caribbean.
• Stunt Casting: Thora Birch's casting helped the film secure funding, as she was just coming off American Beauty.
• Throw It In!: Frankie saying "go!" to the little boy while on the phone was ad-libbed by Keira Knightley.
• What Could Have Been:
  • An alternate ending exists, taking place after the theatrical one. At a university, a boy sits down at a computer. A blonde girl sits down next to him, who we see is actually Liz. She introduces herself as 'Beth', implying she got away with everything and she's now found a new boy to obsess over.
  • Likewise there are two alternate beginnings. The first is the same as the theatrical one, but with different camera angles. The second has Liz sitting in a chair, having flashbacks. At the end of the scene, the door of the hole closes.
  • The speech Liz gives to Philippa about Mike not being able to grow old or cheat on her now that he's dead was added in during production.
• Word of Saint Paul: Thora Birch says that the opening scene, where Liz screams into the phone, is the only time in the film she's completely 100% herself.

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