Trivia / Zero Dark Thirty

• Approval of God: In an interview with Esquire Magazine, the purported then-anonymous shooter^note later revealing himself as Robert O'Neill of Bin Laden had complaints about several technical details of the raid but praised the film for its depiction of Maya, saying it showed her as the tough lady that she really is.
• Banned in China: The Pakistani government is not happy about their portrayal in this movie. Officially, no one in the country has seen it.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Some have quoted Maya as saying "I'm the motherfucker who found Bin Laden" when she instead says "I'm the motherfucker who found this place".
• California Doubling: Jordan and India for Pakistan, which results in some strange things, such as extras speaking Arabic instead of Urdu and more people in traditional dress than you might normally see in Islamabad.
• Content Leak: Screeners for Zero Dark Thirty got leaked about 2 weeks before this film was released.
• Dueling Movies: With Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden, made for The National Geographic channel.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Chris Pratt lost a lot of weight and buffed up for this movie after having gained weight to play Andy on Parks and Recreation after having lost a lot of weight and buffed up for Moneyball.
• Fake American: Joel Edgerton (Patrick) and Jason Clarke (Dan) are Australians playing Americans. Clarke in particular does a flawless accent. Stephen Dillane (British) plays the American National Security Advisor while Mark Strong (British) and John Barrowman (Scottish born but American-raised) also play CIA Agents.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Two years earlier, in the miniseries Carlos, Édgar Ramírez played the title character, one of the world's most notorious terrorists. In this film, he plays one of the CIA agents trying to hunt down Bin Laden.
• Real-Life Relative: Joel Edgerton's brother, Nash, plays another member of SEAL Team Six.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Initially focusing on an unsuccessful attempt to kill Osama bin Laden, the film was rewritten upon his death.
  • Rooney Mara was attached to the Maya role, but later turned it down due to the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo press tour.
  • Tom Hardy was supposed to play Mark Strong's role, but dropped out due to similar scheduling conflicts.

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