Welcome back to Behind The Scenes Saturday!! Today, I’m paying tribute to The Menu! The Menu is a very unique horror comedy that brings shocks and hilarity to the table. So, remember that there are no substitutions, don’t be afraid to ask for your meal to-go, and enjoy these fun pictures and bits of trivia!!

(Trivia provided by IMDb.com)

(Pictures provided by google.com and IMDb.com)

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)

• The film’s screenwriter, Will Tracy came up with the story while on his honeymoon. He was in Bergen, Norway with his wife where they took a boat to a fancy restaurant on a private island. Once they arrived, they learned they couldn’t leave the island until their meal was done.
• Aimee Carrero (Felicity) revealed that after securing a scripted take, the film’s director, Mark Mylod allowed each of the cast members one freebie take where they could completely improvise. Out of this improvisation came Chef Slowik’s (Ralph Fiennes) “Taco Tuesday” line.
• The whole kitchen staff was trained to create the actual dishes broken down station by station. So, when you watch them in the background, they are all doing what they should be doing for that dish.
• All of the prop food in the film was created by renowned French chef, Dominique Crenn. The cast and crew thought the food looked so delicious, that they had to keep being reminded that it all was merely prop food and inedible.

• John Leguizamo (George) based his washed-up action star character on Steven Seagal. Leguizamo had a horrible experience working with Seagal while filming Executive Decision and has since referred to Seagal as a horrible human.
• Dominique Crenn was so impressed with Hong Chau’s (Elsa) dedication and technique throughout the film, that she offered Chau a job at one of her restaurants.
• Initially, Emma Stone was going to play the lead role of Margot and Alexander Payne was set to direct. Then in 2021 they were replaced by Anya Taylor-Joy and Mark Mylod.
• When their close-ups weren’t being filmed, the cast improvised in the background. To get to know each other better, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult (Tyler) would tell each other personal stories and in between takes, they would guess which stories were real and which were fake.

• While most of the food in the film was prop food, the cheeseburger that Margot ate was obviously real. During her cheeseburger eating scene, the rest of the cast was so hungry, that John Leguizamo ordered burgers and fries for everyone.
• In the beginning of the film, Elsa and a few goats lead the customers to the restaurant. A Judas Goat is a goat that keeps cattle and other livestock calm while being led onto trucks and into slaughterhouses. In this case, Elsa is the Judas Goat leading the customers to slaughter.
• There was an eerie alternate ending in the script’s first draft. It consisted of a group of firefighters and investigators walking through the burnt wreckage of the restaurant. Through a sealed fireproof door, they would find Slowik’s smiling severed head on a platter and his severed hands holding the menu.
• The role of Movie Star was originally written for Daniel Radcliffe, and the film he was going to be punished for was the real film, Victor Frankenstein. The role ended up going to John Leguizamo and the film was changed to the fictional film, Calling Doctor Sunshine.

• The seven deadly sins are represented by the six tables and staff. Greed: Soren (Arturo Castro), Dave (Mark St. Cyr), and Bryce (Rob Yang) who were embezzlers. Gluttony: Tyler, who was willing and ready to die for food. Lust: Richard (Reed Birney), who constantly cheated on his wife. Envy: George, who was a name-dropping, washed-up actor. Pride: Lillian (Janet McTeer) and Ted (Paul Adelstein), who believed that the whole dinner was just for their benefit. Sloth: Slowik’s mother, Linda (Rebecca Koon), who did nothing to stop her son’s massacre. Finally, Wrath: Chef Slowik and the rest of the staff, who murdered themselves and their customers.
• Anya Taylor-Joy was the one who came up with the idea to have her character punch Tyler after finding out he knew all along what was going to happen to all of them.
• In the film, Slowik expressed his hatred for substitutions and blatantly yelled, “THERE ARE NO SUBSTITUTIONS AT HAWTHORNE!” This is possibly a big reason that he hated Tyler and encouraged his suicide after going off-menu to embarrass him. Tyler forced Hawthorne to accept a substitute guest, Margot, which set-off his different demise.
• The original script had the male diners forced to be naked from the waist down and eat out of dog bowls. Because the scene was too reminiscent of Salò, it was ultimately cut.

• Chef Slowik insults Richard by calling him a donkey, which is a nod to famous chef Gordon Ramsay, who uses that insult quite a bit.
• Tyler’s delusions are showcased in the form of him desperately wanting Chef’s approval, yet risking taking pictures of his meals. He took those pictures knowing full well that he was going to die that night and he’d never have the chance to show the pictures to anyone or look at them ever again.
• In the original script, Margot and Tyler (whose name was originally Craig) were a married couple, and not an escort and her client.
• Chef Slowik’s life had many similarities to infamous serial killer, John Wayne Gacy. Both were from Waterloo, Iowa and both had alcoholic, abusive fathers. Slowik started his career making fast food cheeseburgers and Gacy started at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Slowik’s last meal was a cheeseburger and french fries and Gacy’s last meal before his execution was a bucket of KFC and french fries.