10 Movie Characters You Didn't Know Were Based On Real People

Australian Cinephile

It turns out The Big Lebowski may be one of the most realistic movies ever made.  Don't Miss Out on our New Show Quick Shots on Facebook & Instagram!  For more awesome content, check out: http://whatculture.com/  Follow us on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/whatculture  Catch us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/whatculture

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00:00As we should all be well aware of by now, a truly original idea is hard to

00:08find in Hollywood. Even setting aside all the sequels, remakes and reimaginings,

00:13there's still a reliance on screenwriters to borrow story ideas from

00:17real-life events, and that actually makes quite a bit of sense. Most filmmakers

00:21don't live in a bubble, so when they're brainstorming ideas for their next movie,

00:25it makes sense that they'd look to the outside world for a little inspiration.

00:28Not only does basing their characters on real people make the filmmakers' job ten times easier,

00:34it also helps the characters feel grounded in reality because, well, they are.

00:39With all that in mind, I'm Will from WhatCulture.com and this is 10 Famous Movie Characters You Didn't Know

00:45Were Based on Real People. But before we begin, don't forget to subscribe to stay notified. Ding, ding, dun.

00:53Number 10, James Franco's character from Spring Breakers is based on an actual rapper.

00:58If you happen to catch any of the promotion for the crime noir fever dream that is Spring Breakers,

01:04you probably found yourself at some point wondering aloud, why does James Franco look like a jet ski

01:10salesman who just learned what dreadlocks are? Well, that's because Franco based his portrayal on an

01:15obscure Florida rapper and human cartoon, Dangerous. And if you were following the less respectable news

01:22sites during the release of the movie, you'll know that another rapper by the name of Riff Raff thought he

01:27was the inspiration for Franco's shady MC, mostly because the character looks and speaks exactly

01:33like him. In fact, if you believe the Texan rapper, the director had approached him about starring in

01:38the film before Franco got involved, but the logistics just never worked out. Enter James Franco,

01:44who apparently stepped into Riff Raff's shoes in a very literal way. And although Raff was excited

01:50about Franco playing essentially a version of him, he still attempted to sue the director for sampling

01:56his life without permission. Number nine, Iron Man was based on Howard Hughes and Elon Musk. Handsome,

02:02rich, deeply flawed businessman innovates flight technology to be used in a military capacity.

02:08Who are we talking about? Inventor of the Iron Man suit, Tony Stark, or inventor of the spruce goose,

02:14Howard Hughes? The answer is, of course, both. Hughes was the perfect inspiration for the MCU's leading

02:21man, as the peculiar entrepreneur basically hit every check mark on Stan Lee's list when the comic

02:27book writer started his newest superhero, stating, he was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire,

02:33a ladies man, and finally, a nutcase. Without being crazy, Tony Stark was Howard Hughes. Speaking of which,

02:41when it was time to bring Stark to the big screen, Robert Downey Jr. decided to look to the founder

02:45and CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, for more inspiration. The director of the film said that

02:51they had initially had trouble trying to figure out how to make Stark seem real. After meeting with

02:56Musk, everything sort of clicked. He stated, Elon Musk makes no sense. Elon is a paragon of enthusiasm,

03:04good humour and curiosity, a renaissance man in an era that needs them.

03:09Number eight, Rocky Balboa was based on a real boxer, Chuck Wepner.

03:13You probably know that the Rocky franchise has a natural connection to the real boxing world.

03:18They've brought in actual fighters and sportscasters to round out the cast,

03:22and it's pretty obvious that the trash-talking, extra exuberant Apollo Creed is based on Muhammad Ali.

03:28But you might not know that Rocky Balboa is based on real-life underdog Chuck Wepner,

03:33who once went 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali in a title fight before losing by total knockout with just 19 seconds left.

03:41Even Rocky's exhibition match against wrestler Thunderlips, played by Hulk Hogan in Rocky III,

03:46was based on a scripted fight Wepner had against Andre the Giant in 1976.

03:52Number seven, Dirty Harry and Bullitt were both based on the lead investigator in the Zodiac Killings.

03:58Neither Dirty Harry nor Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, arguably Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen's most iconic characters respectively,

04:05sprung up fully formed from the screenwriter's imaginations.

04:08Actually, the core concept for the first Dirty Harry movie wasn't even an original,

04:13but rather structured around the real-life Zodiac Killer case.

04:17For those unfamiliar, the Zodiac was one of the world's biggest psychopaths in the late 60s and early 70s,

04:23who bragged via letters to various newspapers about all of the people he brutally murdered,

04:28and even sent a whole slew of cryptic clues to the police that should have led to his arrest.

04:33Dirty Harry followed a similar framework, swapping out the names while pretty much everything else stayed

04:39the same, except in the end, Dirty Harry killed Scorpio, where the real Zodiac case remains unsolved.

04:46Bullitt, on the other hand, took less from the case file in question and more from Toshi's general aura.

04:51McQueen, who plays a San Francisco detective, completely apes Toshi's manner of speaking

04:56and even uses the same, somewhat unusual, upside-down shoulder holsters that allow for a quicker draw.

05:03Number six, Shrek was modelled on a disfigured pro wrestler from the 1940s.

05:08Mindblower number one, Shrek is actually based on a children's book of the same name.

05:13Mindblower number two, Bill Murray, Chris Farley and Nicolas Cage were all in talks at one point or another

05:19to voice Shrek. And mindblower number three, the computer-animated ogre was modelled after a

05:25French professional wrestler with an overactive pituitary gland. Maurice Tillet, better known by

05:30his ring name, the French Angel, became a huge draw on the pro wrestling circuit in the 1940s

05:37because of his unusual look. This was due to a disease shared by fellow pro wrestler Andre the Giant,

05:43which caused severe thickening of the bones. It's likely that the scene from the first film in

05:48which Shrek takes on Lord Farquaad's knights inside an actual wrestling ring was a nice little nod to

05:53the French Angel's involvement in the character's design. Number five, Walter from The Big Lebowski is

05:59based on a famous director. Perhaps no film put John Goodman back on the map as effectively as his

06:06performance as Walter, the quick-tempered Vietnam vet that helped drive the action of The Big Lebowski.

06:12As with so many characters in the Coen Brothers universe, Walter was gleaned from the real world.

06:17This time they pulled from their relationship with director and screenwriter John Milius,

06:22who you might know as the author of some of the greatest, most badass lines of dialogue

06:27ever uttered in American cinema.

06:29Do I feel lucky? Well do you, punk?

06:32I love the smell of my palm in the morning.

06:35He's also a self-described Zen anarchist and although he didn't serve in Vietnam,

06:40that was only because he was rejected due to his chronic asthma. And speaking of The Big Lebowski,

06:46number four, The Dude is a Real Person. There are some movie characters who are so unbelievably awesome

06:52that you're absolutely certain there's no one in the real world who could possibly hold a candle to them.

06:58One such character is Jeffrey The Dude Lebowski, whose propensity for coolness in the face of harsh

07:04vibes is usurped only by his love of white Russians. There's no way someone like The Dude could exist

07:10in real life because people in real life aren't that carefree and karmically on point. And yet,

07:15indie movie producer Jeff Dowd goes well beyond being a simple inspiration for the Coen Brothers' most iconic

07:21character to the point that Jeff Bridges' laid-back, sweater-wearing essence is less of a portrayal

07:27and more a chronicle of Dowd's being. The directors decided to base their principal character in The Big Lebowski

07:33on Dowd because he is, as the script states, a man in whom casualness runs deep. Number three, Jabba the Hutt

07:40was based on Sydney Green Street, an obese actor from the 1950s. At first glance, the inspiration for Tatooine's

07:47corrupt crime boss would seem to be a giant pile of blubber wearing a toad mask on Halloween.

07:53But it turns out that everyone's favourite morbidly obese gangster was actually inspired by British

07:58actor Sydney Green Street, who made his living playing various miscreants in such masterpieces

08:04as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon. Green Street was a big guy. In fact, he was so big that his credited

08:10character in The Maltese Falcon was the Fat Man. He also had an incredible knack for embodying seedy

08:17criminals who dabbled in slavery and smuggling. Now, doesn't that sound familiar? Number two,

08:23Professor X and Magneto were based on Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. The X-Men series has always

08:30been one of the more overtly political comic books out there, and it's pretty apparent that the mutants are

08:35stand-ins for the oppressed citizens of colour that dealt with the same types of intolerance and hatred

08:40that Wolverine and company have endured. It makes sense, then, that the two primary leaders of the

08:45mutants, Professor X and Magneto, would be modelled after the two biggest leaders in the civil rights

08:51movement. Both of these men sought to eradicate the injustices inflicted upon the marginalised members

08:57of society, though the means by which they fought differed greatly. Professor X chose to preach

09:03education and co-existence to his people, echoing many of the sentiments that Dr King included in

09:09his famous I Have a Dream speech, while Magneto went a bit harsher in his tactics, advocating a sort

09:15of mutant supremacy, not unlike the black supremacy Malcolm X embraced during his time with the Nation

09:22of Islam. Unsurprisingly, Stan Lee never envisioned Magneto as an outright villain, and that's largely due

09:28to the respect Lee had for the character's real-life counterpart.

09:32Number one, American Psycho's Patrick Bateman is based on Tom Cruise. It was revealed in a 2010

09:39interview with author Brett Ellis that the titular psychopath from his novel American Psycho was based,

09:45at least in part, on his own hatred of consumerist culture and the tension he felt within himself for

09:52chasing after the yuppie version of the American Dream for so many years. But when it came to portray the

09:58Huey Lewis-loving madman on the big screen, Christian Bale decided to model his performance on the one and

10:04only Tom Cruise. Bale recalls discussing the Martian-like aspects of Bateman's personality with his

10:10director, specifically how the socially inept headcase analysed other people's interactions like an alien,

10:17trying to figure out how normal humans behave. According to Bale, that trait was very apparent in Tom Cruise,

10:24who he had just seen being interviewed by David Letterman. He noted a very intense friendliness,

10:30with nothing behind the eyes, which fell in line perfectly with the vibe Bale wanted to create for

10:36his character.

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