Many people are calling ‘The Social Network’ the best movie of 2010. The Collector’s Edition DVD / Blu-Ray of the film was released yesterday with two commentary audio tracks that provided a lot of insight to the making of the film. Here are 8 things I found to be the most interesting.
8. Armie Hammer played both Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Kinda. An actor named Josh Pence would stand in for whichever twin was out of focus and his face was replaced with Hammer’s in post-production.
Check out this Entertainment Weekly article where David Fincher explains the CG magic behind face replacement.
7. Jesse Eisenberg admits during the commentary that he was suffering from panic attacks and depression during filming. He brings up feeling freaked out about filming the epic opening scene, recants an incident involving an anti-depressant pill, and even drops his shrink’s name in the documentary “How Did They Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?”
He also admitted to having trouble filming any scene in which Zuckerberg’s character was supposed to act “happy,” saying he wasn’t sure what to do in the zipline pool scene that happens right after several characters in the film move to Palo Alto.
Read an IFC.com interview with Jesse Eisenberg where he talks about having anxiety on the set.
6. Erica Albright (Albrecht, whatever) is one of only two characters in the movie whose name was changed from the real life story of Facebook.
It looks like Trendypress did some research and discovered the true identity of Zuckerberg’s ex. So much for protecting the innocent.
5. Eisenberg’s wardrobe is based on Zuckerberg’s. Every piece of clothing that Eisenberg wore in the film was taken from real photographs of Mark Zuckerberg.
Techcrunch interviewed Zuckerberg and he admitted that he owns every piece of clothing shown in the film.
4. Mark Zuckerberg’s blog from the film, ZuckOnIt, is real (it probably had a different title, though). The narrative during the creation of Facemash is taken almost word-for-word from Zuckerberg’s real blog that he posted on while at Harvard.
Check out Zuckerberg’s original Facemash story on the Harvard Crimson’s website.
3. David Fincher did over 10 takes (and possibly a lot more) for almost every scene in the movie. This should come as no surprise to people who are familiar with Fincher’s methods. Most of the actors said that, while this was tiring, they appreciated the freedom to “screw up” on takes and experiment more with their characters.
2. Jesse Eisenberg created an online wordplay website called OneUpMe.com in 2008.
OneUpMe.com is still live and has an active community.
1. Rumor has it that, after the film’s release, Mark Zuckerberg took all of the Facebook employees to a private screening of ‘The Social Network’ at a theater he had rented out. Afterwards, the company went out for Appletinis.
According to a New Yorker article Zuckerberg told his cousin that the Appletini is now the “official drink of Facebook.” At least he has a sense of humor about the whole thing.
BONUS (From an interview with Aaron Sorkin):
We know Mark Zuckerberg didn’t cooperate but did you ever meet Eduardo Saverin, the character played by Andrew Garfield?
Aaron Sorkin: Once Eduardo signed that non-disclosure agreement after his settlement, he disappeared off the face of the earth. We don’t know exactly how much he received, but it’s in the hundreds of millions. And it will probably go over a billion because he also does now own a lot of Facebook stock. But on October 1st, the movie opened and that’s the day I met Eduardo. I got a phone call from our producer Scott Rudin that a representative for Eduardo had contacted him late at night. He wanted to see the movie. So we set up a private screening for him in New York right before Lady Gaga’s private screening. It’s true. I went to meet him when the movie was over and you could have performed surgery on him without anesthesia at that point in time. I gotta say, he was a deer in the headlights, which is an understatement. He did certainly expect to like the movie a lot, but you could tell in his face that he had just relived the thing. It’s an unreasonable experience that hardly anybody, including myself, knows what it’s like to have a chapter from your life suddenly written, directed, lit, shot, and performed by actors. That was the first and only time I met Eduardo.