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Gene Hackman, Louis Gossett Jr, Robert Duvall, Jeremy Irons, Jack Nicholson, and Robert De Niro were all considered for the role of Hannibal Lector.
Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Thompson, and Meg Ryan were all offered the role of Clarice Starling.
The Tobacco horn worm moths used throughout the film were given celebrity treatment by the filmmakers. They were flown first class to the set (in a special carrier), had special living quarters (rooms with controlled humidity and heat), and were dressed in carefully designed costumes (body shields bearing a painted skull and crossbones).
Anthony Hopkins describes his voice for Hannibal Lector as, a "combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn."
Buffalo Bill is a combination of three real life serial killers: Ed Gein, who was skinning his victims; Ted Bundy, who used the cast on his arm to lure women into his van; and Gary Heidnick, who kept women he kidnapped in a pit in his basement.
Cameo: George Romero. The bearded man who accompanies Dr. Chilton and the two guards who forcibly remove Clarice Starling after her final meeting with Lector.
In his first meeting with Clarice Starling, Lector describes the drawing on his cell wall as, "The Duomo, as seen from the Belvedere" in Florence, Italy. Starling later finds Buffalo Bill living in Belvedere, Ohio. Lector, in fact, gives her Buffalo Bill's location in their first meeting.
The character of Hannibal Lector was inspired by serial killer Albert Fish.
The first moth cocoon found in one of the victim's throats was made from a combination of Tootsie Rolls and Gummy Bears, so that if she swallowed it, it would be edible.
With a little over 16 minutes screen time, Anthony Hopkins' performance was the shortest ever to win a leading actor Oscar.
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