FILM · 1992 · UK
Chaplin
69 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (69)
- #001
The original cut of Chaplin ran nearly four hours. More than two hundred hours of footage were shot.
- #002
To prepare for the role, Robert Downey Jr. learned to play the violin and to play tennis left-handed. He also hired a coach to help him imitate Charles Chaplin's posture and mannerisms.
- #003
Geraldine Chaplin played Hannah Chaplin, her real-life grandmother.
- #004
Geraldine Chaplin recalled that when she first saw Robert Downey Jr. in full costume, she was astonished at how much he resembled her late father, and that she even needed a moment to collect her thoughts before she could speak.
- #005
Sir Richard Attenborough's director's cut ran two hours and thirty-seven minutes, twelve minutes longer than the version shown in cinemas. Attenborough said the cuts harmed the film.
- #006
Because Charles Chaplin was known among friends, family and fans as "Charlie," the film's original title was "Charlie." The producers of Charly (1968) complained that the title would cause confusion with their film, so this film's title had to be changed to "Chaplin."
- #007
In a 2013 interview, Robert Downey Jr. said that during his first audition Sir Richard Attenborough showed him a photograph of Tom Cruise and told Downey he was also considering Cruise for the role. Downey said he was not sure whether Cruise was genuinely in contention for the part or whether it was merely a motivational tactic by Attenborough.
- #008
Universal Pictures was to distribute the film, but the studio wanted a bigger name than Robert Downey Jr. in the lead and preferred Dustin Hoffman or Billy Crystal. When producer and director Sir Richard Attenborough refused to comply, the film was shelved and a new producer had to be found. Mario Kassar agreed to take the reins but demanded that the film also cover the later period of Chaplin's life in Switzerland. William Goldman was then brought in to write these new scenes.
- #009
Kevin Kline was initially considered by producer and director Sir Richard Attenborough for the role of Charles Chaplin. Kline initially turned down the role of Douglas Fairbanks because his child had just been born. Attenborough agreed to postpone the shooting of Kline's scenes by a month.
- #010
Producer and director Sir Richard Attenborough had turned down many film roles because of his commitments to the films he directed. Because of the post-production and promotion of this film, he nearly had to do so again when Steven Spielberg offered him the role of John Hammond in Jurassic Park (1993). However, Spielberg offered to adjust the production schedule to suit Attenborough.
- #011
George Hayden (Anthony Hopkins) is the only fictional main character in the film.
- #012
When Charles Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.) arrives in Hollywood to join Mack Sennett's (Dan Aykroyd) company, a film is being shot. Chaplin joins in a complicated scene and improvises. This was in fact the final chase scene of The Adventurer (1917). The same location, where the final shots of that film's opening sequence were made, was used when Chaplin took Oona Chaplin (Moira Kelly) on a tour of his old haunts just before leaving for Europe.
- #013
Apart from Geraldine Chaplin, who appeared in two of her father's films, only one other member of the cast had appeared in a film with the real Sir Charles Chaplin. Phil Brown, who played a mechanic (and is best known as Uncle Owen Lars in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)), appeared alongside Chaplin in A King in New York (1957).
- #014
Charles Chaplin's first wife, Mildred Harris, was 16 when they first met; they had a relationship and married the same year. Milla Jovovich, who plays Harris in the film, was also 16 during shooting.
- #015
The film opened in limited release in the United States on 25 December 1992, the fifteenth anniversary of Charles Chaplin's death.
- #016
While preparing for the role, Robert Downey Jr. trained with vaudeville expert Johnny Hutch. Downey turned down many other projects during the extensive pre-production period in order to focus on perfecting his character in this film.
- #017
Producer and director Richard Attenborough later stated that Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925) was his favorite film.
- #018
Co-producer Diana Hawkins was the one who suggested to Sir Richard Attenborough, knowing he was a Chaplin fan, the idea of making a Charles Chaplin biographical film.
- #019
Robert Downey Jr. recorded the song "Smile," which can be heard in the film's music. However, it was not used in the film.
- #020
Producer and director Sir Richard Attenborough cast Marisa Tomei as Mabel Normand after seeing her performance in the film Oscar (1991) on a transatlantic flight.
- #021
The film spans from January 1894 to 10 April 1972.
- #022
Bryan Forbes's discarded screenplay had a different opening and focused on some of the darker elements of Charlie Chaplin's life and personality. Although his screenplay was not used, the WGA ruled that Forbes received a writing credit because much of the film's framework was derived from his script.
- #023
Nick Nolte was considered to play Charles Chaplin in his later years.
- #024
In this film, Roland Totheroh is working with Charles Chaplin at Keystone in 1914. Their working relationship actually began a year later. It lasted from 1915 until Chaplin's exile from the United States in 1952. Roland Totheroh's son and grandson, Jack Totheroh and David Totheroh, appear as cameramen in this film.
- #025
Although some characters in the film suggest that Charles Chaplin was Jewish, he in fact was not.
- #026
Reportedly, a body double had to be brought in for the nude scene between Charlie (Downey) and Mildred Harris (Jovovich). Milla Jovovich was only 16 at the time and therefore too young to take part in a nude scene. Even so, in this scene you can see nipples in a frontal close-up, so if a double was used, her bare back was visible during the shot. In addition, the previous year, at age 15, she was nude in Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991), and no double was used for those scenes.
- #027
This film was one of many collaborations between Sir Anthony Hopkins and Sir Richard Attenborough, including Young Winston (1972), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Magic (1978) and Shadowlands (1993).
- #028
Sir Charles Chaplin's eyes were often described by those who knew him as strikingly blue. Robert Downey Jr.'s are hazel. They appear dark brown, but in several scenes of Restoration (1995), brighter lighting on his face revealed his eyes to be hazel with green highlights.
- #029
Peter Sellers had tried to make a film about Charles Chaplin several decades earlier.
- #030
Like many composers, John Barry, who scored this film, developed a recognizable style. Part of a recognizable style lies in instrumental choices, melodic cues and the emphasis of particular notes or chords. In the music Barry prepared especially for this film, many similarities with the score for Out of Africa (1985) can be heard.
- #031
Steven Spielberg offered Richard Attenborough the role of Tootles in Hook (1991), but he had to decline because he was working on this film. Arthur Malet was cast instead. Spielberg later cast Attenborough as John Hammond in Jurassic Park (1993); it was his second acting role since The Human Factor (1979) (including Chaplin, 1992).
- #032
The music playing on Charles Chaplin's recording device comes from Elgar's "Enigma Variations," from the Finale.
- #033
Before Robert Downey Jr. was cast, Tim Curry was considered for the role of Charles Chaplin.
- #034
This was John Thaw's last film before his death on 21 February 2002 at the age of 60.
- #035
John Goodman and Winona Ryder were at one time attached to this film. They were considered for the roles of Mack Sennett and Mildred Harris.
- #036
James Woods shot his role (Joseph Scott) in a single day.
- #037
Deborah Moore, who plays Charles Chaplin's second wife Lita Gray, was 28 during filming. Gray was 15 when she married Chaplin and 17 when they divorced.
- #038
J. Edgar Hoover (Kevin Dunn) argues with Charles Chaplin (Robert Downey Jr.); among the guests at the table are Marion Davies (Heather McNair) and William Randolph Hearst (Jack Ritschel), both of whom played significant roles in Chaplin's life.
- #039
Patsy Kensit auditioned for the role of Oona Chaplin.
- #040
The cast includes four Oscar winners: Robert Downey Jr., Sir Anthony Hopkins, Marisa Tomei and Kevin Kline; and three Oscar nominees: Dan Aykroyd, Diane Lane and James Woods.
- #041
Pierce Brosnan was considered to play Douglas Fairbanks. Sir Richard Attenborough cast Brosnan in the title role of Grey Owl (1999).
- #042
Director Richard Attenborough's first choice was Robert Downey Jr., while Jeff Bridges, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, John Cusack, Johnny Depp, Tom Hanks and Antony Sher were also considered for the lead.
- #043
In this film Kevin Kline plays the actor Douglas Fairbanks. In The Last of Robin Hood (2013), Kline plays Errol Flynn. Flynn was widely regarded as Douglas Fairbanks's natural successor. Both actors often appeared in swashbucklers; in particular, both played Robin Hood.
- #044
According to the AFI Catalog entry for this film, Kevin Kline, Dustin Hoffman, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams were considered for the lead.
- #045
Gerald Sim (the Doctor) was the brother-in-law of director Richard Attenborough.
- #046
Richard Attenborough acquired the rights to Charles Chaplin's autobiography in 1988 and at one point considered adapting it into a television miniseries.
- #047
Robert Downey Jr. and Marisa Tomei appeared together in Only You (1994), Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
- #048
Graham Sinclair (the Master of Ceremonies) was the son-in-law of director Richard Attenborough.
- #049
Johnny Depp met with Richard Attenborough to discuss the lead role, even though he knew he would not be free to take it.
- #050
Chaplin's brief mention of partnering with a cowboy named Broncho Billy is a nod to his time at the Essanay Film Studios in Niles, CA, where he made several short films in 1915. Those shorts are available online. Today the studio building is a silent film museum that regularly screens Chaplin and other classic films, both silent and sound.
- #051
Richard Attenborough had previously directed Kevin Kline in Cry Freedom (1987).
- #052
Myles Dobson auditioned for the role of the young Charles Chaplin but lost out to Hugh Downer. The chance, however, steered him toward acting.
- #053
Jim Carrey was considered for the role of Charles Chaplin. He was later considered for the role of Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park (1993), where he would have worked as an actor opposite director Richard Attenborough.
- #054
Robert Downey Jr. played both Sir Charles Chaplin and Sherlock Holmes (the latter in two films). The real Chaplin played the butler Billy in William Gillette's stage play Sherlock Holmes at the age of 14.
- #055
There is a three-way Canadian connection to Mack Sennett, who discovered Charles Chaplin's talent in Hollywood. Sennett was Canadian-born (in Quebec) and is played by the Canadian-born Dan Aykroyd. In the French-dubbed version, Aykroyd is voiced by the Canadian-born actor Richard Darbois, whose father, Olivier Guimond Jr., drew part of his comedic skill from Charlie Chaplin.
- #056
The film emphasizes that Charlie embellished his autobiography, claiming it would make a better story than the truth. But instead of the magical approach he proposes for discovering the elements of the Tramp costume, the film simply depicts him picking up various items in a costume shop to create the famous Little Tramp, ignoring the fact that his entire outfit was assembled from clothes borrowed from famous actors of the day, such as Fatty Arbuckle's enormous trousers.
- #057
Producer and director Sir Richard Attenborough's surname is mispronounced in the trailer as "Richard Attenburrow's Chaplin."
- #058
Robert Downey Jr. and Nancy Travis had previously appeared together in Air America (1990).
- #059
Kevin Dunn and Anthony Hopkins reunited in Nixon (1995), which also featured the character J. Edgar Hoover, though this time he was not played by Dunn.
- #060
Less than a year later, Kevin Kline and Kevin Dunn worked together again on Dave (1993), which also starred Ben Kingsley from Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982).
- #061
Laurel Whitsett's debut.
- #062
Kevin Dunn and Maria Pitillo also appeared in Godzilla (1998).
- #063
Kevin Kline and Robert Downey Jr. also appeared together in Soapdish (1991).
- #064
Marisa Tomei, Robert Downey Jr. and Anthony Hopkins have all appeared in films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Downey Jr. and Tomei notably appeared together in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017).
- #065
Charlie defends his art form against J. Edgar Hoover, claiming that his character attacks the rich, the famous and the entitled. In fact, in his early comedies his character attacks everyone, high and low, without provocation. By modern standards this would be considered pure psychopathic behavior and could not be defended in any way.
- #066
The film greatly exaggerates Fred Karno's fate, implying that he was later ruined and died in poverty. In fact, although he would go bankrupt in 1926, he recovered and continued working as a writer and producer in theater and film into the 1930s. He eventually retired in Dorset, worked as a co-owner of an unlicensed business (a liquor store), and died in 1941 at the age of 75. He certainly did not die penniless; he and his wife left a joint estate of £4,485 on their deaths, equivalent to well over £100,000 in modern money.
- #067
Moira Kelly's first nudity in her career. She was 24 years old.
- #068
One of two films in which Richard Attenborough worked over consecutive years with a composer named John. Here (as producer and director) with John Barry, and on Jurassic Park (1993) (as an actor) with John Williams.
- #069
Chaplin first moves to Montana, where he receives a job offer. In Jurassic Park (1993), Richard Attenborough's first scene takes place in Montana, where he offers the main characters a job.
Continue through the archive
Robert Downey Jr.as Charles Spencer Chaplin- Geraldine Chaplinas Hannah Chaplin
- John Thawas Fred Karno
Moira Kellyas Hetty Kelly
Anthony Hopkinsas George Hayden- Dan Aykroydas Mack Sennett
- Marisa Tomeias Mabel Normand
Kevin Klineas Douglas Fairbanks- Milla Jovovichas Mildred Harris
- Diane Laneas Paulette Goddard
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