FILM · 2014 · USA
While We're Young
24 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (24)
- #001
Just before Josh meets Jamie and Darby, he is in class trying to show a clip from Nanook of the North (1922). Besides being one of the first documentaries, it is also famous for being staged in much the same way as Jamie's work.
- #002
Darby and Josh joke about Rosemary's Baby (1968). Charles Grodin, who plays Cornelia's father Leslie, played Dr. Hill, Rosemary's first gynecologist, in Rosemary's Baby.
- #003
Amanda Seyfried said that playing Darby was actually challenging at 28, and that she connected more with older characters.
- #004
The confrontation between Josh and Jamie was shot this way because Noah Baumbach wanted it to be almost like a confrontation between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty.
- #005
Noah Baumbach used an exchange of dialogue from Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder in the opening scene because, to him, it says everything about the film.
- #006
Charles Grodin's character, Leslie Breitbart, is portrayed as a famous documentary filmmaker. In Leslie's apartment there are fake Criterion Collection DVDs of the "directed" films Leslie prepared specifically for this film.
- #007
Peter Yarrow, who plays the subject of Ben Stiller's character's documentary, is known as "Peter" of the groundbreaking 1960s folk group Peter, Paul & Mary. This is his first acting role in a film. Coincidentally, Yarrow's classic song "Puff, the Magic Dragon" appeared on the soundtracks of Stiller's Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004).
- #008
Jamie plays in a band called "Cookie O'Puss." Adam Horovitz, who plays Fletcher, is a member of the Beastie Boys; "Cookie Puss" was the name of the Beastie Boys' second EP. Both are references to the "Cookie Puss" ice cream cake from Carvel, a franchise chain that advertised heavily in the New York metropolitan area in the 1970s and '80s. During March, as a St. Patrick's Day promotion, Carvel sometimes renamed the cake "Cookie O'Puss."
- #009
Greta Gerwig was cast but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts; Amanda Seyfried replaced her.
- #010
David Bowie's song "Golden Years" plays at the start of the end credits. The melody is also heard in the opening scene, played on a child's music box.
- #011
When Josh leaves his father-in-law Leslie's house, a sign for the National Arts Club is visible next door. This means Leslie has long lived in Gramercy Park, one of Manhattan's most prestigious, exclusive and expensive neighborhoods. The homes in the neighborhood overlook Manhattan's only private, gated park, and only these residents hold the keys to the park. Famous residents of the neighborhood include Edwin Booth, Isadora Duncan, Gregory Peck and Julia Roberts.
- #012
Ben Stiller tried to persuade Noah Baumbach to let Dustin Hoffman play Leslie, his character's father-in-law, after Hoffman played Stiller's father in Meet the Fockers (2004) and Little Fockers (2010). Hoffman and Stiller became friends while working on the two films. Baumbach briefly considered the idea but preferred Charles Grodin for the role, because Grodin had taken a break from acting for more than a decade in the mid-1990s and had made only a few films since returning to acting in 2007, and Baumbach wanted to see Grodin's presence in more films. Stiller eventually agreed to being a Grodin fan in the original 1972 Heartbreak Kid, which was remade in 2007 with Stiller taking over the lead from Grodin. Baumbach promised Stiller that he would work with him and Hoffman on another film, and three years later they all collaborated on the Netflix original film The Meyerowitz Stories (2017).
- #013
Although his face is never shown in close-up, the speaker at Lincoln Center honoring Leslie's lifetime achievements is film historian and director Peter Bogdanovich, whose works include The Last Picture Show (1971), Targets (1968) and Paper Moon (1973). In real life, Bogdanovich has both presented many such awards to leading figures in the film world (for example, he presented Cyd Charisse's Texas Film Award to her in Austin) and received many awards himself.
- #014
Jamie and Darby have a chicken named "Nico"; Nico Baumbach is director Noah Baumbach's younger brother, who appears as a guest at Fletcher and Marina's party. Nico Baumbach's wife, Annie Baker, appears as Marina's friend Elise.
- #015
At the time of release, Noah Baumbach was the same age as Josh.
- #016
The tribute to Cornelia's documentary filmmaker father Leslie Breitbart at Lincoln Center was shot at the Time Warner Center/Shops at Columbus Circle, which also actually houses a jazz show at Lincoln Center Theater.
- #017
Naomi Watts and Brady Corbet had appeared together seven years earlier in Funny Games (2007), but they do not share a single scene in this film.
- #018
Adam Driver made his film debut with J. Edgar (2011), in which Naomi Watts played a significant role.
- #019
While Marina is on the phone after Cornelia invites her to her house in Connecticut, Fletcher is looking for the cardboard sleeve of a CD. Josh later picks up the sleeve while in Fletcher and Marina's apartment.
- #020
The film's cast includes five Oscar nominees: Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Naomi Watts, Peter Bogdanovich and Brady Corbet.
- #021
Jesse Eisenberg was brought onto the project.
- #022
Charles Grodin starred in The Heartbreak Kid (1972), and Ben Stiller starred in the remake The Heartbreak Kid (2007).
- #023
Alex Pettyfer was approached for a role but turned it down.
- #024
In the end, while Cornelia looks after their new adoption, the child's picture is placed inside the book "Brooklyn," which would later be adapted the following year into the film of the same name, Brooklyn (2015).
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