PrimeWire

My favorite piece of trivia related to this movie. The part of George Hanson had been written by Terry Southern for his friend Rip Torn, but an incident between Torn and Hopper at a New York restaurant where the principle players, Fonda, Hopper and Southern, had gathered with Torn to discuss his role. At some point, Hopper had gone on a rant about “rednecks” he had encountered on his scouting trip to the south and Southern, having been born in Texas, was offended. Hopper and Torn almost came to blows and the result was that Torn withdrew from the project and the role was offered to Jack Nicholson, his first major movie role.

In 1994 Hopper was on The Tonight Show and told Leno that Torn had pulled a knife on him during the altercation, which resulted in Torn suing for defamation. Torn won the case, during which eyewitnesses stated that Hopper was the one with a knife. Peter Fonda recalled the two going at each other with a butter knife and a salad fork.