FILM · 1994
With Honors
10 archived facts 2 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
10 Interesting Facts About With Honors
Interesting Facts (7)
- #001
When the film was shot in the winter of 1993-1994, there was already at least a meter of snow in Harvard Square and all of Boston. However, because the real snow did not look "real" enough to be filmed, it was completely cleared away and replaced with artificial snow.
- #002
Six famous British actors competed for the role of Prof. Pitkannan, but Joe Pesci vetoed all of them, wanting the part to go to a famous American actor.
- #003
The project was originally set up as a Dustin Hoffman project.
- #004
Kristy Swanson passed the role of Courtney to Moira Kelly.
- #005
The film is set at Harvard, and its director, Alek Keshishian, is also a Harvard graduate (class of 1986).
- #006
Simon's message is a quotation from Walt Whitman.
- #007
It is the only film in Joe Pesci's career rated PG-13.
Characters & Cast (3)
- #008
The film was shot in various locations in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Massachusetts, including the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The exterior of Winthrop House appears, but the interiors shown are not those of the real Harvard houses, and the film's final scene was shot at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. The buildings and surroundings were dressed to resemble Harvard, and most of the people in the final scene were Illinois students. The graduation scene was shot at a time when the local Illinois climate did not allow the trees to leaf out, so artificial branches and leaves were stapled on. For all the exterior shots of Harvard's Widener Library, Northwestern University's Northrop Auditorium stood in. The scene in which Simon Wilder and Professor Pitkannan discuss the role of the president in American democracy was shot in Lincoln Hall at Northwestern Law School.
- #009
The first kiss between Brendan Fraser's and Moira Kelly's characters is a re-enactment (in a different setting) of the iconic first kiss between the characters played by Julian Sands and Helena Bonham Carter in A Room with a View (1986), filmed nine years earlier.
- #010
Bob Hoskins was considered for the role of Simon.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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