In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Moonlight

Although some of its thunder was stolen when La La Land was mistakenly announced as the winner, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight won Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards, and it’s easy to see why it was honored with the top prize. Damien Chazelle’s homage to musicals from the Golden Age of Hollywood was a visual treat, but it was nothing compared to the personal stakes and emotional depth that Jenkins brought to Moonlight.

The tragic three-act story of Chiron is intimate and beautiful, with universally relatable emotions. Here are 10 fascinating details from the making of Moonlight.

10 Brad Pitt Helped To Get The Movie Made

When Barry Jenkins was first trying to get Moonlight made, he met with Brad Pitt. Although Pitt didn’t become attached as a producer, his interest did help Jenkins to get the budget together and secure a distribution deal.

Pitt’s production partner Dede Gardner is among Moonlight’s producers, and she went on to become the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Picture twice. She first won for producing 12 Years a Slave.

9 The Three Actors Playing Chiron Didn’t Meet During Filming

Moonlight’s lead character Chiron is played by three different actors across the movie’s three acts — Trevante Rhodes, Ashton Sanders, and Alex Hibbert — and Barry Jenkins prevented them from meeting each other during filming.

Jenkins wanted each actor to come up with their own persona for Chiron that wasn’t influenced by how the other actors played him. The director also prevented the actors playing Kevin from meeting each other.

8 An Incoming Storm Changed The Swimming Lesson Scene

The scene in which Juan teaches Chiron how to swim has gone on to become one of the most iconic scenes in Moonlight, and one of the film’s defining images. But it was originally going to be a lot longer, with more dialogue between the characters.

When the cast and crew went out to shoot the scene, a storm started coming in that restricted how long they could shoot for. This ended up working out well for the film, as the darkening clouds added some extra symbolism to the scene.

7 Naomie Harris Had To Shoot 15 Years Of Her Character’s Life In Three Days

Naomie Harris is the only actor who appears in all three of Moonlight’s acts, but she was only available to shoot for three days, because she was busy promoting Spectre and there was a problem with her visa.

Harris’ scenes in Moonlight spanned a whopping 15 years in her character’s life, so she had to dig into a decade and a half’s worth of emotional development and personality changes in just three days. She succeeded admirably and scored an Oscar nomination for her performance.

6 Moonlight Is The Lowest-Budgeted Best Picture Winner (Adjusted For Inflation)

Moonlight’s Best Picture win broke a handful of records. It was both the first LGBT-themed film and the first film with an all-black cast to win Best Picture. And with a reported budget of $1.5 million, it was also the lowest-budgeted Best Picture winner in Oscars history.

Technically, Rocky was cheaper, with a budget of $1.1 million, but that was in the ‘70s. Adjusted for inflation, Moonlight is the Best Picture winner with the lowest budget. The film went on to gross more than 43 times its budget with a box office haul of $65.3 million.

5 The Film Is Based On An Unproduced Play

In 2003, after playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s mother died from AIDS, he wrote a semi-autobiographical play called In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue to deal with the grief.

The play ultimately went unproduced until Barry Jenkins got a hold of it through the Borscht arts collective in Miami and became interested in turning it into a film. After speaking to McCraney, Jenkins spent a month in Brussels working on the screenplay.

4 Each Chapter Of The Movie Mimics The Look Of A Different Film Stock

The play that Moonlight was based on had three acts, just like the film, but they ran alongside one another. It wasn’t even revealed that they were all the same person until the midpoint of the play. In the adaptation process, Barry Jenkins decided to split up the movie into three distinctive parts to give the story more focus.

He shot each chapter to mimic the look of a different kind of film stock. The first chapter was based on the Fuji film stock, which brought out more vibrant colors; the second was based on Agfa film stock, which added some cyan tones; and the third chapter was based on Kodak film stock.

3 The Cast And Crew Had To Share One Trailer And One Toilet

Due to the ultra-low budget of Moonlight, the cast had to share one trailer for all their hair, makeup, and wardrobe requirements. The cast and crew also had to share a single bathroom. The movie was shot over the course of 25 days in late 2015 in South Florida, where the story is set.

2 Naomie Harris Was Initially Reluctant To Play A Crack Addict

At the beginning of her acting career, Naomie Harris committed to only portraying women in a positive light. So, she was reluctant to play a crack addict in Moonlight.

When Barry Jenkins confided in her that he’d based the character on his own mother, who struggled with addiction, Harris reconsidered and decided to take the role. Harris herself is not a drug user, so she watched YouTube videos of crack addicts in order to get into their mindset.

1 Barry Jenkins Wasn’t Disturbed While Filming In Liberty Square Because He Had Family In The Area

Both director Barry Jenkins and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney grew up in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, where the film is set. There were initially concerns about shooting in Liberty Square, but Jenkins and his crew were ultimately undisturbed, because word got out that Jenkins had family in the area.

According to accounts by the cast and crew, the locals couldn’t have been more accommodating. Naomie Harris said she’s never felt more welcomed at a filming location.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
(3461 Articles Published)

Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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