After the novel "Being There"'s release and the subsequent purchase of rights to the book, Peter Sellers successfully lobbied for the lead role by sending a telegram to author Jerzy Kosinski with the message, "Gardener available for work". It was during casting and after the success of the later Pink Panther movies that Sellers became the only choice for the lead role.
Sellers prepared for the role of Chance in the 1979 film by recording his voice over and over again, experimenting with different styles and tones, and finally incorporating an accent that was neither wholly British nor American, creating a distinct alien feel to his character. . He chose a deliberately blank style to convey the character.
In a 2019 interview, costume designer May Routh stated that Sellers would refuse to work if the colors green and purple were visible on set. Routh would also claim that she was warned if she spoke to Sellers she would be fired from the film.
In different versions of the movie, the end credits are either shown over several outtakes of Sellers trying to say a line (the message for Raphael) ultimately not used in the movie version (restored to the home video version), or they are shown over TV white noise. Sellers was at the film's screening at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival. He was furious with director Hal Ashby and the producers for including the outtakes version of the end credits for this performance and at the audience's reaction to them. This incident may have finally persuaded the producers to change their minds. Some said the reason Sellers lost the Academy Award for his performance was because of these outtakes, including Sellers himself, who believed they "broke the spell" of the movie.
A favourite film and towering performance (if such an understated deadpan performance can be referred to as such) from Peter Sellers. A role he was born to play IMHO. A favourite writer in Jerzy Kosinski and I believe I have everything he published. Delayed in Europe he had been due to fly back to the States with his old friend Roman Polanski, (they were both from Lodz in Poland had they taken the flight they were scheduled to, their luggage was lost in New York and they were delayed they would have been in the house in Benedict Canyon and come face to face with Manson Family who killed his wife and unborn son.
Kosinski committed suicide (1991) after the stress and strains of baseless accusations of plagiarism depressed him so and his health suffered terribly accordingly so he suffocated himself after imbibing a cocktail of drink and drugs
* Kosinski wrote ‘Pinball’ for his friend George Harrison . . . . yes that one
Peter Sellers passed away in 1980 after a series of heart attacks, he was 54
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