All The Things You Probably Don’t Know About Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Traffic’

Today is Benicio del Toro’s 48th birthday, and to mark the occasion, I’ve dug up some facts on one of his most critically acclaimed movies: Traffic. Don’t get me wrong, Del Toro’s got no shortage of great films under his belt. He’s one of the most versatile actors working and seems to completely transform himself into his onscreen characters, whether he’s playing a weirdo in Big Top Pee-Wee, a weirdo in The Usual Suspects, or a drugged out weirdo attorney in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Signing on to the cast of Steven Soderbergh’s saga about three different storylines tied to the drug war would land del Toro an Oscar and lead to highly praised roles in 21 Grams and Che. Traffic — which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year — picked up three additional Academy Awards and landed on the top 10 lists of many critics for its camerawork and handling of drug issues without getting too preachy. So, here’s 10 things you might not have known about one of the early 2000s best dramas.

1. The film had ties to a movie that hadn’t even been made yet. Steven Soderbergh wanted to do a movie about the drug war, but he didn’t want it to focus on drug addicts, so he based it on the 1989 U.K. mini series Traffik. While looking for a screenwriter, Soderbergh read a script called Havoc by Stephen Gaghan about privileged white kids who got hooked on drugs. Soderbergh and Gaghan agreed to merge the two projects together for Traffic, and Gaghan would later have his original screenplay, Havoc, made five years later.

2. The teens achieved the look of being high by having dust blown in their faces. To prep for the scenes in which Topher Grace and Erika Christensen were stoned, filmmakers blew peppermint dust in their faces to irritate their eyes (the same effect was also used for scenes in Super Troopers).

3. Screenwriter Stephen Gaghan based part of the story on his own personal history. When a movie critic took issue that it seemed unrealistic that Erika Christensen’s character had an perfect report card while being addicted to drugs, Gaghan pointed out that this was based on his own high school life at the time, and he had a perfect record as a high school drug user.

4. Benicio del Toro’s Oscar win put him in select company. Del Toro is one of only five actors to have won an Academy Award for a role spoken mainly in a foreign language. Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Marion Cotillard and Roberto Benigni are the other four. He’s also the only person to have won an Oscar for the movie not named Stephen or Steven: Steven Soderbergh (Best Director), Stephen Gaghan (Best Adapted Screenplay), Stephen Mirrione (Best Editing).

5. Actor James Brolin put his military uniform to good use. While during a break from filming, James Brolin noticed two youths trying to break into his car. Still wearing his generals uniform, Brolin was an intimidating presence and frightened away the would-be thieves.

6. Harrison Ford gave Michael Douglas’ character a tune-up. Initially, Michael Douglas turned down the offer. It was then handed off to Harrison Ford, who agreed to do the part. Ford had some issues with the character and worked with Soderbergh to improve the character before deciding the project wasn’t right for him. Soderbergh brought the changes that he and Ford had made to Douglas, who liked the character improvements and agreed to sign on for the movie.

7. Senator Harry Reid improvised his part. The filmmakers sent out letters to both Republican and Democratic senators, asking them to make a cameo in the film. For the scene with Senator Harry Reid speaking with Michael Douglas, Reid declined to read the scripted dialogue and said he’d prefer for Douglas to just ask him the question and let him respond as he would naturally.

8. The film was on the cusp of receiving an NC-17 rating. In a 2001 interview, Soderbergh revealed that there were concerns about the film getting the dreaded NC-17 rating.

Although Traffic is rated R, I understand you were prepared to release it as an NC-17.

In the midst of all this discussion about the ratings there was some concern on our part that the film might get an NC-17. We were resolved to take the rating if we got it and not recut. But as it turned out, we got an R. I was surprised.

9. A private school in Cincinnati took issue with the movie. Gaghan had originally planned to set the stories for the Wakefield family in Louisville, Ky., but he decided to shoot in Cincinnati because he felt their neighborhoods looked grittier. As a result of the move, it was mentioned in the theatrical release that Erika Christensen’s character went to Cincinnati Country Day prep school, who took issue with their name being used in the negative storyline and requested that all references to the school be removed from the movie’s video release.

10. Different film colors were used to distinguish the various storylines. You probably noticed that the scenes involving Douglas have a different tint compared to the ones with del Toro. Soderbergh said that he wanted each storyline to look visually different to the viewer and filmed each with a different filter.

“The issue of how to distinguish the three stories visually arose about and I decided for the East Coast stuff, tungsten film with no filter on it so that we get that really cold, monochrome blue feel. For San Diego, diffusion filters, flashing the film, overexposure for a warmer blossomy feel. And for Mexico, tobacco filters, 45-degree shutter angle whenever possible to give it a strobelike sharp feel.”

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