20 facts you might not know about 'The Big Lebowski'

Author Raymond Chandler is one of the foremost purveyors of hard-boiled crime novels. He’s the writer behind such works as Farewell, My Lovely, The Long Goodbye, and… The Big Sleep. Yes, the title of The Big Lebowski is a riff on The Big Sleep, and the film is inspired by Chandler’s stories.

Elliott serves as something of a narrator in the film as the unnamed character known as “The Stranger.” Joel Coen says they wanted a narrator because Chandler's stories are always narrated by the main character. However, the Coens decided to have it be somebody outside the story.

We’re used to period pieces, but usually, they take place decades, if not centuries, before modern times. The Big Lebowski is a period piece, but only just. While the movie came out in 1998, it’s set in the early ‘90s during the last days of the Presidency of George H.W. Bush.

Apparently, you meet interesting people while trying to get films financed. When the Coens were looking for money for their debut film, Blood Simple , they met Jeff Dowd and Peter Exline. Both inspired Jeff Bridges’ character of The Dude. Dowd was even called “The Dude” himself and enjoyed White Russians. Exline, meanwhile, once had his car stolen by a teenager who left homework in the front seat, and he and a friend tracked them down.

Exline and his friends engaged in a sport together: softball. The Coens didn’t find it cinematic enough. Instead, The Dude and his compatriots are part of a bowling league. Bowling, after all, is a little more social but also a little easier to film.

While The Dude is named Jeffrey Lebowski, that’s not what you call him. He’s not the titular “Big Lebowski.” That would be the other Jeffrey Lebowski, played by David Huddlestone. Before Huddlestone, the Coens wanted a lot of actors. Their primary hope was to get Marlon Brando, but he was having health issues. Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, and Anthony Hopkins were all approached.

In a very ‘90s move, Tara Reid was cast as Bunny Lebowski, the nymphomaniac wife of The Big Lebowski. Another actress was considered for the role, one that was at the beginning of what would become a notable career. That actress? Charlize Theron.

Walter is just a bit different from his laidback friend The Dude. He’s an aggro lover of all things military and guns. Walter, right down to his look, is inspired by John Milius. Milius is one of the writers on Apocalypse Now, but he also wrote and directed Conan the Barbarian and Red Dawn. Needless to say, he's also a fan of guns and violence.

You may have clocked Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as one of the nihilists. However, he’s not the only musician in the movie. The female nihilist who gives up her toe for the plan? She’s played by Aimee Mann.

In the film, The Dude is shown an adult film by Maude Lebowski, which shows Bunny and Uli, the leader of the nihilists. He fixes the cable. There’s another character, Shelley, in the film. She’s played by Asia Carrera, one of the most famous adult film actors at the time.

Joel and Ethan began working on the script for The Big Lebowski around the same time they were working on the script for Barton Fink. However, after writing 40 pages, they set it aside. This is evidently a normal part of their process. Then, when the time came to potentially make the film, both John Goodman and Jeff Bridges were busy with other products. The Big Lebowski was put on the back burner again while the brothers made Fargo.

Jeff Dowd drove a Chrysler LeBaron, so that would also be the car that The Dude drove. The only problem? It was a bit too small for the burly Goodman. Instead, The Dude drives a Ford Torino.

While Bridges did meet Dowd before playing The Dude, he said he mostly drew from his own life and his own experiences in the ‘60s and ‘70s. That goes down to the wardrobe. Much of what The Dude wears came from Bridges’ own closest.

According to Joel, there was only one bit of directing they really had to give Bridges. Before shooting any new scenes, Bridges would apparently ask if The Dude had smoked a joint on the way to the location. If the answer was yes, he would rub his eyes to try and make them look bloodshot.

The house that stands in for Treehorn’s abode is called the Sheats-Goldstein Residence. This is a house that has also appeared in Southland, Snowfall, Bandits, and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, among others.

Sometimes people will call something a “cult” movie even though it was a smash at the box office and had a lot of critical love. The Big Lebowski has a bigger claim to being a cult movie, and it starts with the fact that, at the time, it wasn’t that well received. The reviews of the era were mixed, and it only made $46.7 million worldwide against a $15 million budget.

Things have definitely changed in terms of the reputation of The Big Lebowski. The movie is in the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress, for starters. Entertainment Weekly called it the 34th-best cult movie of all time and the eighth-best comedy of the last 25 years in 2008. The Los Angeles Times called it the 10th best film set in Los Angeles. Even Roger Ebert – who admittedly gave it three stars on its release – put it on his list of “Great Movies” in 2010.

Beginning in 2002, an event called Lebowski Fest has been held in Louisville, Kentucky. People dress in costume, bowl, drink White Russians, and have various contests. That original event was so big that it expanded to other cities across the globe. In 2007, Bridges even showed up at the Los Angeles Lebowski Fest. There’s also a religion called Dudeism, but that’s too deep a story to go into now.

When Walter is wailing on what he believes to be Larry Sellers’ car, he tells Larry that this is what happens when you…well, it involves a stranger, a certain act, and a certain body part, and it can’t be said on most television channels. Instead of the rudimentary edited version, in The Big Lebowski, Walter instead says, “This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps.” This line inspired the name of Phoebe Bridgers’ first album.

We see Donny bowl plenty, and he gets a strike every time, save for the last time he bowls in the film (an ominous omen). The Dude, though, is less active. He never sees The Dude bowl even once in the movie. As such, we have no idea if The Dude can roll or not.