FILM · 2013 · USA
American Hustle
- Directed by
- David O. Russell
- Runtime
- 138 min
- Studio
- Annapurna Pictures, Atlas Entertainment
68 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
A conman and his seductive partner are forced to work for a wild FBI agent, who pushes them into a world of Jersey power-brokers and the Mafia.
Summary: TMDB
51 Interesting Facts About American Hustle
- #002
David O. Russell stated that Robert De Niro did not recognize Christian Bale even after they had been introduced on set. De Niro pulled Russell aside, pointed at Bale and asked who he was. De Niro initially did not believe it was Bale, but nodded in confirmation after Russell convinced him, noting that De Niro said, "Wow, he looks really different." Russell then had to reintroduce the two because De Niro knew who Bale was.
- #003
As the film's opening sequences state: "Some of this actually happened." And so it did. Christian Bale's character was broadly based on Melvin Weinberg. The FBI enlisted Melvin Weinberg, a convicted con man, international swindler and informant, and his girlfriend Evelyn Knight to help plan and carry out an FBI operation. At the time both faced prison sentences, and in exchange for their help the FBI agreed to release them on parole. Although Weinberg was a previously convicted criminal who had been involved in earlier frauds, he avoided a three-year prison sentence and was paid $150,000 along with the operation.
- #004
Contains a major spoiler — show
Jennifer Lawrence kissing her in the bathroom was Amy Adams's idea.
- #005
Carmine Polito was based on the real-life Mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Angelo Errichetti, who was caught up in the Abscam scandal and served three years in prison on bribery charges. He died at the age of 84 in May 2013, only a few months before this film was released.
- #006
David O. Russell was excited to work with Jeremy Renner in the role of Carmine after seeing Renner's performance on Saturday Night Live (1975). Russell stated that he was particularly struck by Renner's sense of humor and his risk-taking on the show, which contributed to his confidence in Renner's ability to break his "type" as an action hero.
- #007
The film has over two hundred visual effects shots, most of which consisted of removing modern cars and buildings that did not exist between 1978 and 1980.
- #008
Several friends and colleagues of the late Angelo Errichetti (Carmine Polito in the film) particularly praised Jeremy Renner's nuanced performance, claiming he "virtually cloned" Errichetti's appearance and mannerisms. Especially in the dramatic scenes, Renner's portrayal and energy were said to be so similar that it "made Ange feel alive again" on screen.
- #009
David O. Russell wrote the characters with Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C. K. and Robert De Niro specifically in mind to play them.
- #010
Having Richie DiMaso get a perm and using a curling iron in the scene in Richie's apartment was Bradley Cooper's idea.
- #011
Costume designer Michael Wilkinson prepared a special wardrobe plan for Amy Adams. To elegantly show Sydney's emotions and physical vulnerability, he deliberately designed her braless outfits to be form-fitting. In the scenes showing Sydney's supreme confidence in her con work, he made abundant use of Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dresses. He also gained unprecedented access to Halston's entire 1970s dress collection.
- #013
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Irving confronts Rosalyn about her new gangster boyfriend Pete by putting a canvas bag over his head, he uses the tactic of saying "no" to manipulate people. In this scene he is very light, and it emerges when Rosalyn says she wants to go to Miami. This is consistent with Irving's goals. However, he begins throwing Rosalyn's packed clothes back into the closet, which ultimately makes her more determined than ever to leave.
- #015
The script's original title was "American Bullshit," and it ranked eighth on Hollywood's 2010 Black List of unproduced screenplays.
- #016
Filming on this film was postponed on April 19, 2013, when the city was placed on lockdown following the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon. Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Amy Adams went to hospitals in the Boston area to visit victims of the attack.
- #017
David O. Russell's treatment of the actors was reported to be so harsh that Amy Adams cried on set almost every day.
- #021
Christian Bale stated that for the scene in which Irving sings "Delilah" with Carmine, he chose to study footage of many Al Pacino classics. His awkward singing and dancing is a result of that research.
- #022
David O. Russell developed and expanded the role of Rosalyn Rosenfeld specifically for Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer Lawrence drew both the inspiration for the character and her accent from watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey (2009). Rosalyn is based on Cynthia Marie Weinberg, the wife of Melvin Weinberg (the basis for Irving Rosenfeld).
- #023
The real Rembrandt (the fake one was in the museum where Irving argues with Richie) is in the living room of Sydney/Edith's apartment. It is not front and center, but it is there if you look for it.
- #025
The weight Christian Bale gained nearly cost him his role in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014). This was because Bale was still carrying some of the extra weight, but he managed to lose the remaining weight over time.
- #026
Contains a major spoiler — show
Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner) was sentenced to eighteen months in prison on bribery charges. The real-life figure, Angelo Errichetti, was also found guilty but served three years in prison.
- #028
Jennifer Lawrence's fondness for snacking on Doritos on set caused her to stain and nearly ruin many dresses. The wardrobe department compensated by preparing several duplicate dresses for her to use throughout the production, so that she would always have a clean dress to wear.
- #030
Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is very loosely based on the real-life con artist and convicted swindler Melvin Weinberg, whose story is told in the book "The Sting Man," written with Bob Greene.
- #031
David O. Russell initially shot Rosalyn's house-cleaning scene with her singing Santana's "Evil Ways," but at the last minute after the shoot he decided the scene would be better with the title song from Sir Paul McCartney and Wings' Live and Let Die (1973). According to Colleen Camp, Russell, within half an hour, helped secure the rights to use the song in the soundtrack from his longtime friend, James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli. Camp handled the clearance through phone calls from California to London while she was hospitalized for treatment of a blood clot in her knee. After contacting Russell (who was in Boston) once permission was granted, he immediately reshot the scene with Jennifer Lawrence, Danny Corbo and Sonny Corbo and cut it into the final film. Both completed versions of the scene can be seen on the DVD and Blu-ray. "Evil Ways" was ultimately used when Rosalyn approaches the gangsters at the Camden City Hall premiere.
- #032
After Rosalyn destroys her husband's microwave, or "science oven," by putting metal (aluminum foil) inside it, she justifies her mistake by quoting an article by Paul Brodeur that allegedly claimed microwave ovens destroy the nutrients in food. Brodeur later denied this in a presentation to The Huffington Post in January 2014, but did not explain that in 1978 he had been quoted in People Magazine claiming microwaves were "zapping" the American public. The producer refused to respond to Brodeur's complaint about the attribution to him.
- #033
In 2015, Jeremy Renner and Jennifer Lawrence learned that they are fifth cousins. A research team at Ancestry.com discovered that they share a common ancestor in Kentucky, the farmer Robert Tague, who was Lawrence's fifth great-grandfather and Renner's fourth great-grandfather.
- #034
Amy Adams told E! News that the nude scene in the film was in fact a last-minute decision by director David O. Russell. "I might have had a gin and tonic actually before that scene," she said. "David threw it at me at the last minute too. He gave me no time to think about it. It was the night before, so I got a message or I could have woken up in the morning and it would be like, 'I think the character might be a stripper. I think we want to shoot it.' It was the first day of shooting and the end of the day, and I said, 'As long as you let me look at the scene, I'll do it.' And he did."
- #036
Emails leaked in the 2014 Sony hack revealed that Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence were paid less than their male co-stars Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale for this film, despite having comparable screen time, similar importance to the story, and broadly similar levels of fame and popularity among fans.
- #037
Fitting the film's themes, the "Duke Ellington Live at Newport" record on which Irving and Sydney first bond was largely a fake live album. Because producer George Avakian was unhappy with the live recordings from the Newport Jazz Festival, more than half of the original LP was re-recorded in the studio. This was not made public until 1996, and the complete live performance was finally released in 1999. Ellington hated the idea of altering the Newport live recordings, walked out of one of the sessions where the studio overdubs were being recorded, and refused to work with Avakian again.
- #039
Contains a major spoiler — show
The officials convicted in the real-life Abscam case were: Sen. Harrison Williams (Democrat-NJ), Rep. Frank Thompson (Democrat-NJ), Rep. John Jenrette (Democrat-SC), Rep. Raymond Lederer (Democrat-PA), Rep. Michael Myers (Democrat-PA), Rep. John Murphy (Democrat-NY), Rep. Richard Kelly (Republican-FL), Mayor Angelo Errichetti (Democrat), City Council President George Schwartz (Democrat), City Councilman Harry Jannoti (Democrat), City Councilman Louis Johanson (Democrat), and an inspector from the Immigration Service.
- #041
Christian Bale worked 45 days for $2.5 million, while Bradley Cooper worked 46 days for $2.5 million. Jennifer Lawrence, who is billed fifth in the credits, was paid $1.5 million for 19 days of work.
- #042
American Hustle (2013) reunited David O. Russell with actors he had worked with before: Christian Bale and Amy Adams from The Fighter (2010), and Bradley Cooper, Shea Whigham, Jennifer Lawrence, Paul Herman and Robert De Niro from Silver Linings Playbook (2012).
- #043
Ben Affleck was initially considered to direct, but he dropped out of directing "The Stand" and eventually dropped this as well.
- #044
Jessica Chastain was offered the role of Rosalyn Rosenfeld but had to turn it down because of a scheduling conflict.
- #045
The $10 million Richie DiMaso repeatedly demands for his operation would, adjusted for inflation, equal $35,729,601 in 2013, the year the film was released.
- #046
In October 2014, science writer Paul Brodeur sued Columbia Pictures over a line in the film in which Rosalyn tells Irving that microwave ovens remove the nutrients from food and states that he read this in an article by Brodeur. In real life Brodeur wrote books about the dangers of microwave radiation, including "The Zapping of America" (such dangers do not exist, since microwave ovens use electrically powered microwave generators to produce the microwaves that cook food and contain absolutely no nuclear energy or material), but he claims he never stated that the process eliminates a food's nutritional value.
- #047
Danny Rosenfeld (Danny Corbo and Sonny Corbo) is broadly based on J. R. Weinberg, the real-life son of Melvin (Irving) and Cynthia Marie Weinberg (Rosalyn). Unlike the boy Danny, J. R. Weinberg was sixteen at the end of Abscam.
- #048
The Boston Marathon bombing, as depicted in Patriots Day (2016), occurred during production, and the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev brought location shooting in Boston to a halt for a day. Bradley Cooper made hospital visits to victims, including Jeff Bauman, and later praised the city's rapid emergency response in an interview with Ryan Seacrest.
- #049
Alessandro Nivola based his character's voice on Christopher Walken, because of the similar wardrobe and hairstyle reminiscent of Walken in True Romance (1993).
- #050
This is David O. Russell's highest-grossing film.
- #052
The film's trailers show brief glimpses of the line-dance sequence at Camden City Hall featuring Irving, Richie, Carmine and Rosalyn, from the deleted "Carmine On Stage Singing" scene.
- #053
Jeremy Renner (Carmine Polito) and Elisabeth Röhm (Dolly Polito) both appeared in the first season, eleventh episode of Angel (1999), "Somnambulist."
- #056
Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro also appeared together in Limitless (2011), Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and Joy (2015).
- #057
American Hustle was shot over a period of two months.
- #058
Shea Whigham and Jack Huston appeared in Boardwalk Empire (2010).
- #059
Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner later starred together in Arrival (2016).
- #060
American Hustle was the seventeenth highest-grossing film of 2013.
- #061
Jennifer Lawrence cancelled a planned holiday in order to shoot this film.
- #062
Bradley Cooper (Rocket Raccoon) and Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye) appeared in Avengers: Endgame (2019).
- #063
Amy Adams and director David O. Russell share the same birthday: 20 August.
- #064
American Hustle is the third film of Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper.
- #066
All five of the film's most prominent stars have also appeared in superhero films: Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Dark Knight trilogy; Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Amy Adams as Lois Lane in the DC Extended Universe; Jennifer Lawrence as Raven/Mystique in the X-Men film series; and Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Michael Peña also played Luis in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- #068
Jeremy Renner and Shea Whigham appeared in Lords of Dogtown (2005).
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