Find Out What's Reel About La La Land
La La Land is a musical masterpiece that captures the story of a young actress and jazz musician as they fall in love while pursuing their individual dreams. The movie was incredibly well received by both audiences and critics and landed a record number of Golden Globe nominations as well as tying the record of Academy Award nominations (14 for both).
Here are some facts that you may not have known about La La Land;
1. The opening number in the movie, “Another Day of Sun”, was almost cut and was actually screened at one point without it. Ultimately an overture was cut instead of the elaborate dance. The filmmakers have said that every song included in the movie was in jeopardy of being cut at some point of the production.
2. “Another Day in the Sun” was shot over two days on a shut down interstate on ramp in Los Angeles involving approximately 60 cars, 3 stunt men and 30 dancers. The number was shot in such a way that it looks like one continuous shot but in reality, the shot is broken into 3 segments and edited together to look seamless.
3. Ryan Gosling played all of his own piano parts in the movie. He trained for approximately 4 months and the very first scene he shot involved him having to play the piano. A piano double was initially hired but didn’t end up being needed. (Bonus: John Legend had to learn how to play guitar!)
4. The bad audition scene at the beginning of the movie where Mia’s dramatic audition is interrupted by the casting director taking a phone call is based on a real experience that Ryan Gosling had.
5. Some of the singing was captured live during filming. The end of “Someone in the Crowd” (in the bathroom), the “City of Stars” duet and “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” were sung live. The desk and actors who were in place in front of Mia while she sung the song “Audition” had to be moved back and the sounds this made had to be cut out. Composer Justin Horowitz also played the piano live during “Audition” and admitted he was nervous doing so during the movie commentary.
6. Originally the song “Someone in the Crowd” was much longer. It had a second verse and a chorus before Mia came out to the street to join them. It was actually all shot but cut from the movie. This number was actually the very first number of the movie to be shot.
7. The dance number “A Lovely Night” was shot during a 30 minute window during the sunset on two nights. The dance was a 6 minutes unbroken take that required Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling to pretty much immediately reset to the beginning of the dance the moment the take ended so that they did not waste the perfect timing of the sunset.
8. During the scene where Mia and Sebastian are walking through the movie lot and there is a movie being shot in the background. The actors playing the couple in the movie being filmed are Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling’s stunt doubles. According to the DVD commentary this was one the lead actor’s ideas to do this.
9. Also during the scene where Mia and Sebastian are walking through the movie lot, they pass in front of a large movie poster. The movie advertised is actually writer/director Damien Chazelle’s first movie Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench.
10. During the scene where Mia and Sebastian get into an argument, Ryan Gosling did not want to say the line “You’re an actress, what are you talking about?!” Writer/director Damien Chazelle insisted it was needed for the scene but they ended up arguing about it with Gosling continuing to refuse the line. Gosling ended up saying the line during one particularly heated take and Chazelle ended up using it.
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