18 Things You Might Not Know About “Silence of the Lambs”

Mental_Floss presents 18 Things You Might Not Have Known About Silence of the Lambs.

Here are three of my favorites…

1. IT’S THE THIRD FILM TO EVER WIN ALL OF THE “BIG FIVE” OSCARS—BEST PICTURE, ACTOR, ACTRESS, DIRECTOR, AND SCREENPLAY.

The other two were It Happened One Night in 1934, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975.

2. GENE SISKEL GAVE IT A THUMBS DOWN.

Siskel infamously didn’t see what all the fuss was about, dismissing the movie as a “star-studded freak show” on TV and writing that Lambs was “a case of much ado about nothing.” The Oscars, and Ebert, disagreed.

7. SEAN CONNERY WAS THE FIRST CHOICE TO PLAY LECTER.

Connery read the script and found it “revolting.” Daniel Day-Lewis and Derek Jacobi were also considered.