Trivia / True Lies

• Actor-Inspired Element: In one scene, Gib mentions an incident where he came home to find that his ex-wife had left him and taken everything from their home, including the ice cube trays in the freezer. This is based on an incident that really happened when Tom Arnold split with his ex-wife, Roseanne Barr. Which makes his next line, "What kind of sick bitch takes the ice cube trays out of the freezer?" a Take That!.
• Career Resurrection: This gave Arnold Schwarzenegger a much-needed hit after the high-profile flop Last Action Hero.
• Creator-Chosen Casting:
  • James Cameron had known Jamie Lee Curtis since she had been directed by his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow in Blue Steel and always wanted to work with her. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger initially did not see her as Helen; not wanting to hurt Cameron's feelings, Schwarzenegger relayed the message through his agent, and Cameron respected his wish. He auditioned and considered many actresses to find a replacement, but after watching Curtis in A Fish Called Wanda, he knew he would not find one. So, Cameron went to Schwarzenegger and asked if he trusted him. When Schwarzenegger confirmed, Cameron said, "It's going to be Jamie." Schwarzenegger begrudgingly agreed and showed no negative feelings towards Curtis during the first days on set. In fact, he became so impressed with her performance that he later shared top billing with her.
  • Cameron remembered Art Malik's performance in City of Joy (1992) and offered him the role of Salim Abu Aziz without an audition.
• Creator's Favorite Episode:
  • Tom Arnold has said this is his favorite movie he's ever been in.
  • Jamie Lee Curtis called the film "without question, the greatest experience of my professional life so far."
  • Tia Carrere named this as her favorite role of all time "because I got to be a villain."
• Development Hell:
  • The sequel, which now may or may not become a television series instead. In 2010 there was talk of the film being rebooted as a television series, with John Cena playing Harry but the project never actually entered production, though the TV series project would be revived in 2022 with Steve Howey playing Harry and began airing the following year on CBS.
  • This is the case for the Blu-ray. The film was released on VHS and DVD, but the former was full screen (common for VHS), and the latter was a non-anamorphic release with zero special features. There have been rumors of a Blu-ray re-release for a decade, but so far, the only HD release is on D-VHS (a tape-based format that displayed 1080P).
• Directed by Cast Member: In the Latin American Spanish dubs:
  • Universal's dub was directed by Alan Miró, Gibson's voice actor.
  • Fox's dub was directed by Simon's voice actor, Rubén Trujillo.
• Dueling Dubs:
  • The movie has two Latin American Spanish dubs. The first dub was made in Procineas S. C. L. for Universal, while the second one was made in Servicios de Televisión Mexicana for 20th Century Fox.
  • There are two Japanese dubs. The first was produced in 1995 for the home media releases with Takayuki Sugo voicing Harry, while a second one was produced in 1996 for the Fuji TV broadcast with Tesshō Genda voicing Harry. The late Gorō Naya voiced Spencer in both dubs.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Jamie Lee Curtis exercised every day to prepare for this role.
• Edited for Syndication: Naturally, some of the edgier dialogue had to be edited for TV. One of the most notable ones is when Simon's going on about Helen: In the theatrical version, he says "She's got the most incredible body, and a pair of titties that'll make you stand up and beg for buttermilk. Ass like a ten-year-old boy!" — this was replaced with a different line on TV.
• Fake Nationality: Art Malik, who plays Aziz, is a Pakistani-born British actor, Faisil is played by American-Jewish actor Grant Heslov, and of course Arnold trying to pass off as an American with the surname "Tasker" takes a little bit of Willing Suspension of Disbelief. However, that last one can be explained away: Tasker is German or Austrian and has taken on the persona as part of his cover. During the truth serum scene, the more the serum influences Harry, the thicker his accent gets.
• Friendship on the Set: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tom Arnold became very good friends because of this film. Tom thinks this is because they both grew up in a small town and made something of themselves, and has more than once spoken of their Undying Loyalty to each other.
• He Also Did: Armen Ksajikian, who portrayed Juno's chauffeur, has performed as a cellist on several film scores, including this film.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: As detailed in Development Hell, this film, along with the similarly elusive James Cameron film The Abyss, has not seen a release past DVD and is only sporadically available for streaming, usually on Hulu. Cameron has only made vague promises of releasing both films on streaming and high-definition formats over the years, with only HD copies via broadcast television and unofficial bootlegs having come about in the near two decades since their DVD release. Fortunately, in the UK, the film would become available to stream on Disney+ in January 2023. A UHD Blu-Ray release was eventually announced for March 2024.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The theatrical trailer shows two deleted scenes; Harry's boss Spencer talking on phone and saying "Mr. President, one of our best men is inside" and additional scene between Juno and Harry where she tries to seduce him while Gib is talking to him over the radio.
• Money, Dear Boy: Art Malik took the role of Aziz because he had been out of work for 14 months and owed a considerable amount of money to the Inland Revenue.
• No Stunt Double:
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger did some of the driving stunts himself.
  • Jamie Lee Curtis performed the helicopter rescue scene herself. On her birthday.
• On-Set Injury:
  • Eliza Dushku broke several ribs while doing a stunt. According to her accusations in 2018, the stunt coordinator Joel Kramer had molested her, and followed through on a threat to injure her when she tried to report it.
  • Arnold Schwarzenegger had a near-fatal accident on set during the horse-riding scene, when his horse got startled and ran out of control. Schwarzenegger managed to slide off the horse, but did this near a 30-foot drop-off. His personal stunt man saw what happened and was able to grab him before he went over the ledge.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • In an early version of the script, Harry discovers Dana ditching school to sing in her boyfriend's band. While Harry drives Dana back to school, they sing the song she was doing ("Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream) when he walked in on her. Both scenes were cut from the movie. Instead, you can faintly hear the song playing on Dana's Walkman in the scene before her boyfriend picks her up for school.
  • One involving the film's poster. Between the title, "True" and "Lies", is a grenade with an earring attached on it, a reference to a cut scene where Juno threatens Helen by putting a grenade, minus the pin, in-between Helen's legs. After Harry escapes his captors, he retrieved the grenade and uses one of Helen's ear-rings to restore the grenade to its default state. The subsequent shootout have Harry using that same grenade to blow up a few mooks, seemingly from out of nowhere, which is actually a leftover from the cut moment (though audiences probably assumed Harry obtained it from some armory offscreen).
• Prop Recycling: The USMC Harrier II fiberglass replica used to film the climax was later reused by The Avengers, for the fight scene between the Hulk and Thor, where the Hulk rips a wing off to hurl at the God of Thunder. Afterward, the prop was purchased and restored by the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois.
• Reality Subtext: James Cameron was going through a divorce around the same time as filming this movie. This may explain the premise.
• The Red Stapler: Victoria's Secret lingerie sales experienced a significant boost following Jamie Lee Curtis showcasing a black lace bra and thong set from the brand in the movie.
• Release Date Change: The film was planned to be released on July 1, 1994, but it was eventually moved to July 15.
• Stillborn Franchise: A sequel was in the works that would have reunited all the main cast members, but the 9/11 attacks put the sequel on hold and it was eventually cancelled. James Cameron would later comment:
  "In this day and age, terrorism just isn't funny anymore."
• Throw It In!:
  • Jamie Lee Curtis' slip and fall during the stripper dance wasn't scripted, and you can even see Arnold Schwarzenegger jumping out of the chair to see if she's alright. She instead got right back up and continued the dance, so Arnold sits back down quickly. Luckily, all of this is perfectly in character for both Helen and Harry (Helen was shown to be clumsy before, and especially so under such circumstances and under stress; Harry would obviously be concerned about his wife, and then hastily attempt to maintain The Masquerade when the show goes on), and it ends up as one of the funniest scenes of the movie.
  • During the ending dance scene, Helen again slips and falls. Curtis was so exhausted from rehearsals and filming it over and over she could no longer hold herself up.
  • Arnold broke the wrong window in the confrontation scene between himself and Tom Arnold. So yeah, that's Da Governator's fist shattering a real car window as if it were made with Soft Glass. Tom's surprised reaction isn't acting.
• Troubled Production:
  • While not suffering from quite the on-set tribulations as James Cameron's prior films, it went massively overbudget. Initially budgeted as $60 million, the final tally was estimated anywhere between $100 and $120 million, becoming the first film to break $100 million in budget. Most of the budget was being paid by Fox, which had knock-on effects on Strange Days, which was also being funded by Fox and under the same production company, Lightstorm Entertainment.
  • In 2018, Eliza Dushku accused the film's stunt coordinator Joel Kramer of sexually abusing her after gaining the trust of the 12-year-old's family, being so brazen as to publicly nickname her "Jailbait" on the set. She also alleged that a stunt that went wrong and hospitalized her with broken ribs was actually a deliberate piece of sabotage by Kramer after an adult friend of Dushku's confronted him, as a threat to do even worse if she told anyone else. Cameron was quick to give his support to the accusations, saying he would have had "no mercy" for Kramer if he'd had any idea what was happening.
• Voice-Only Cameo: James Cameron can be heard as the helicopter pilot who says, "Yeah she's got her head in his lap, Yahoo!"
• What Could Have Been:
  • Jodie Foster was originally cast as Helen Tasker, but was forced to turn the role down because she was signed to Nell. Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Annette Bening, Sandra Bullock, Joan Cusack, Geena Davis, Valeria Golino, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Madonna, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Julianne Moore, Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Isabella Rossellini, Sharon Stone, Emma Thompson, Lea Thompson and Sigourney Weaver were also considered.
  • Dan Aykroyd, John Goodman, Steve Guttenberg, Joe Pesci and Bill Murray were considered for Albert Gibson.
  • The horse chase scene would have had Harry chasing Aziz through the reflecting pool at the Washington Monument, but the National Parks Service refused to allow it.
  • Helen was originally going to go nude in the striptease scene, but the idea was dropped and Jamie Lee Curtis kept on her underwear during it.
  • The film was originally planned with a $40 million budget. However, thanks to Cameron planning to keep creative control of the film, he renegotiated with Fox to increase the budget to $100-120 million, making it the first film to surpass the $100 budget limit for films.

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