Trivia / The Last King of Scotland

• Billing Displacement: James McAvoy's Dr. Garrigan is the main protagonist, but Forest Whitaker's Amin completely dominates the theatrical poster and the North American Blu-Ray/DVD cover◊.
• Career Resurrection: Forest Whitaker was trapped in a rut for six years after the colossal catastrophe that was Battlefield Earth in 2000, barring minor parts in Panic Room and Phone Booth. Playing Idi Amin in this film not only gained him widespread acclaim and accolades like an Academy Award for Best Actor, it also revitalized his career with more high-profile projects afterwards.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Forest Whitaker gained some fifty pounds of weight for the role. Also in a rather literal sense of this, he mentioned in an interview that his actual skin was also colored to better match the real Idi Amin.
• Enforced Method Acting:
  • For the scene early on where Idi Amin speaks before the cheering crowd of villagers, the filmmakers didn't have to tell the extras to react that way... because they all believed that Forest Whitaker really was Idi Amin.
  • The director decided to use local Ugandan children as extras for a scene where James McAvoy's character is giving vaccinations. Of course, the director did not tell the children or their parents/other adults with them that the syringes were just props. Many of the children thought they were really going to get shots, so their apprehension and nervousness is completely real.
• Fake Nationality: The main Ugandans are played by two Americans (Forest Whitaker and Kerry Washington) and a Brit of Nigerian descent (David Oyelowo).
• Follow the Leader: Came out among several other African conflict films after the success of Black Hawk Down.
• Method Acting: In addition to changing his physical appearance, Whitaker immersed himself in Idi Amin's life, meeting with people who knew Amin, learning to speak Swahili and play the accordion, and staying in-character even off-set.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The editing and music in the trailer hype this movie as an action thriller, when it is anything but.
• Promoted Fanboy: James McAvoy loved The X-Files as a teen and fancied Agent Dana Scully, so he found it intimidating to work with Gillian Anderson, whom he had to kiss in one scene.

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