5 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘The Outsiders’ Movie
Ralph Macchio recently appeared on Live with Kelly and Mark and reminisced about appearing in the 1983 film adaptation of The Outsiders. Plus, he spoke about how much he loves the current Broadway adaptation. He admitted something very interesting during the interview: the director Francis Ford Coppola made the kids live like their characters. Macchio portrayed poor Johnny Cade, one of the Greasers, so he had to stay on the lowest floor of the hotel and would be given tasks such as making $5 last all day to see how it feels to live as a less fortunate kid. Meanwhile, the Socs got nicer hotel rooms and fancier scripts to put them in character. Now, let’s go over some additional fascinating facts about The Outsiders.
1 The author was a teenager when she wrote the book and made a cameo in the film.
Warner Bros./Everett Collection
Author S.E. Hinton (Susan Eloise Hinton) was just 15 years old when she wrote the iconic novel. She said that she was sick of the books targeted towards teens in those days and wanted to write something that was grittier and that dove more into real teenage struggles. Her friend’s mother had contacts at a book agency in New York City, and the rest is history. They suggested that she go by S.E. so that readers might think she was a male. Hinton was very much involved with the making of the film and even had a small cameo as a nurse during a scene with Dallas (Matt Dillon).
2 A librarian convinced Francis Ford Coppola to make the book into a movie.
Warner Brothers/Everett Collection
The book was released in 1967, and by the late ’70s, it was becoming common for high schoolers to read the book for school. A school librarian named Jo Ellen Misakian noticed how popular the book was with her students and got them to sign a petition for Coppola to turn it into a movie.
3 Tom Cruise almost played another character.
Warner Brothers/Everett Collection
While Tom Cruise plays Steve Randle in the film, he initially auditioned for Sodapop. While Cruise was auditioning, he stopped abruptly and said that it wasn’t working. The role went to Rob Lowe instead, who turned out to be a great choice. The rivalry between them didn’t stop when they took breaks from filming. Lowe once shared that they would fight each other in the hotel hallway, wearing headgear and mouthpieces. He added that during one of those fights, Cruise completely knocked him out cold!
4 Diane Lane was often pranked on set.
Warner Brothers/Everett Collection
Diane Lane, who played Cherry Valance in the film, was often the victim of pranks on set. She once said, “It was frightening to see and realize many violations of psyche and boundaries, such as honey all over my toilet seat, something terrorizing written with my lipstick in the mirror, Vaseline on every door handle, and just when you think it’s safe and you can finally sleep that night, your bed is short-sheeted!”
5 The church fire was actually scary.
Everett Collection
During the scene where the Greasers rescue young children from the abandoned church fire, things actually got dangerous in real life. Coppola wanted it to be realistic so he asked for more fire, but things quickly got out of hand. The local fire department showed up, but it started raining around the same time and that put out the fire naturally. Sounds like they got lucky!
Who is your favorite character in The Outsiders? Do you prefer the novel or the movie?
You can rent the movie on YouTube or Amazon Prime Video and get tickets to the Broadway musical version here.
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