A Fish Called Wanda: Fun Facts from the Cult Comedy
Jamie Lee Schwartz
During filming, duty sheets included the name Jamie Lee Schwartz instead of Jamie Lee Curtis. John Cleese had learned before filming that Tony Curtis' real name was Bernard Schwartz, and insisted to the production to make the joke.
Striptease
In the original script, Jamie Lee Curtis was supposed to do a striptease without realizing that she was undressing in front of a family of bourgeois Londoners. But the actress refused, arguing that she had already done the same thing in A Chair for Two (1983). It was Cleese who took on the task, and he was right: the scene becomes downright hilarious. The proof:
John Cleese plays Cary Grant
John Cleese's character of the stuffy judge is called Archie Leach. That's the real name of legendary Hollywood actor Cary Grant, whose full birth name was Archibald Alexander Leach. The reason is simple: he's Cleese's favorite actor.
Palin the stutterer
Ken, played by Michael Palin, has a stutter, which poses problems for his accomplices when he has to communicate crucial information. Palin took inspiration from his own father, who also stutters, to create his character. However, this has not stopped stuttering associations from complaining about the way his disability has been portrayed. Palin gave his name to “a centre for young children who stutter in London” in 1993.
Released on July 15, 1988 in the United States in 3 theaters, the film reached first place at the box office on September 16 (increasingly extending its distribution as it became more successful). Ten weeks to reach the top of the rankings: A Fish Called Wanda still holds the record for the film that took the longest to reach number one, ahead of Sydney Pollack's Absence of Malice (1981) with Paul Newman, which struggled for nine weeks in the rankings.
Dying of laughter
Legend has it that a spectator died of laughter watching A Fish Called Wanda. In 1989, Danish director Ole Bentzen laughed so hard in the movie theater during the scene where Otto (Kline) interrogates Ken (Michael Palin) by shoving fries up his nose that he had a cardiac arrest.
Arte devotes its entire evening to Jamie Lee Curtis.
A fish named Wanda was released on French screens on January 18, 1989: this cult and delirious comedy revolving around a theft of diamonds by a trio of broken arms, co-written and played by John Cleese whom he pushed from the DNA of Monty Python, enjoyed enormous critical and public success in its time. Full of legendary moments (the killing of the dogs by Michael Palin, the interrogation with fries, Jamie Lee Curtis who gets off on foreign languages, etc.), the film even earned Kevin Kline – who found one of his best roles in Otto, a moronic hitman – the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
A look back at the best anecdotes from the film, on the occasion of its rebroadcast this Sunday evening. Note that the evening will continue with a documentary dedicated to the American actress: Jamie Lee Curtis, a cry for freedom in Hollywood. It is already visible in replay on the channel's website.
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