The film was based on a true story
Cocktail is adapted from a 1984 novel by Heywood Gould, based in part on the author’s real life experiences. Gould had actually worked as a bartender in New York to support his writing career, and says that he ‘met a lot of interesting people behind the bar and very rarely was it someone who started out wanting to be a bartender.’
There were 40 different drafts of the script before the film finally went into production
The film’s writer Heywood Gould has been quoted as saying “there must have been 40 drafts of the screenplay before we went into production. It was originally with Universal. They put it in turnaround because I wasn’t making the character likeable enough.” Eventually it ended up at Disney’s Touchstone Pictures, where it was reworked specifically for Tom Cruise.
Some legendary 80s actresses auditioned to be in the film
Once Tom Cruise landed the lead, the search was on for a love interest, and some big name 80s actresses were on the wish list. These included Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club, St. Elmo’s Fire), Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) and Daryl Hannah (Blade Runner, Splash). Another contender was Demi Moore, who would later join Cruise in A Few Good Men.
The role of Jordan was a big change for Elisabeth Shue
The part of Jordan Mooney ultimately eventually went to Elisabeth Shue. She was then best known for her teenage ‘girl next door’ roles in The Karate Kid and Adventures in Babysitting, so playing a more mature love interest was a step in a new direction. Shue later appeared in the Back to the Future sequels, and was Oscar-nominated for 1995’s Leaving Las Vegas.
The story completely changed once Cruise was on board
Doug Chouglin actor Bryan Brown says Cocktail originally had “one of the very best screenplays I had ever read. Very dark, about the cult of celebrity.” However, Brown says it all changed when Cruise was cast as Brian Flanagan. “Tom Cruise is a very sweet man, he was then and still is, but when he came in, the movie had to change.”
Cruise and Brown had bartending training for the film
To prepare them for the film, LA bartender John Bandy trained Cruise and Brown in some impressive bottle-flipping routines. Author Heywood Gould also took Cruise and Brown to his friend John Bandy’s bar to show them some of the tricks and help them perfect their flair. Bandy revealed that ‘both Tom and Bryan were very capable, ambidextrous guys.’
‘Flair bartending’ is an actual thing
In the movie, Cruise and Brown display some seriously impressive moves thanks to their hands-on instruction from John Bandy, who was in fact a professional flair bartender. As unlikely as it might sound, flair bartending is actually considered an acrobatic skill which is performed competitively around the world. The art dates back to the 19th century.
Flair bartending wasn’t included at all in the original novel
Today, pretty much the only thing everyone remembers about Cocktail is Tom Cruise throwing bottles and shakers around. It may surprise you, then, that this was never part of the original novel or script. Flair bartending was only incorporated when John Bandy showed Cruise and Brown the moves. Disney loved it, and made this the focal point of the whole movie and its marketing.
Yes, they used real bottles
You might think it would be easier (and less messy) to just use plastic glasses. However, Cruise and Brown used real bottles on set, even when filming the sometimes intricate throwing routines. Not surprisingly, they did accidentally wind up breaking a few bottles and glasses, and apparently Cruise was responsible for the majority of these.
Critics hated the film
Tom Cruise may have been at the height of his early fame in 1988, but this didn’t make the critics like Cocktail. It received mainly negative reviews, and later ‘won’ two Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay. Later, it was listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson’s book of The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made.
Cruise fought with his wife off set
At the time of making Cocktail, Tom Cruise was a year into his first marriage to actress Mimi Rogers. However, the couple had an infamously turbulent relationship and were already at loggerheads. It was reported that Cruise and Rogers were arguing constantly when he wasn’t filming. They would be divorced by 1990, when Cruise met Nicole Kidman on the set of Days of Thunder.
Cruise got seriously ill while shooting in Jamaica
Tom Cruise got sick when filming in Jamaica, due to the exterior shots being filmed outside in the cold. Whilst he and Elisabeth Shue were shooting a love scene in a waterfall, his condition became apparent. He has said the experience was ‘not quite as romantic as it looks… in certain shots you’ll see that my lips are purple and, literally, my whole body’s shaking.’
The scene with Gina Gershon being tickled off the bed wasn’t planned
The moment when Gina Gershon’s Coral falls off the bed with Cruise’s Brian wasn’t planned. Cruise knew Gershon was ticklish and it led to them falling off accidentally. Coral was one of Gershon’s first roles; she later recalled, “I found myself at 8 in the morning, in bed, practically naked, having to make out with Tom Cruise. ‘Hmmmm… movie business – so far, so good.'”
Even Cocktail’s writer doesn’t like the film
For Cocktail’s writer Heywood Gould, the film proved a disappointment. “I was not happy with the final product. It got so savaged by the critics… I was accused of betraying my own work, which is stupid. So I was pretty devastated. I literally couldn’t get out of bed for a day. The good thing about that experience is that it toughened me up.”
Cruise isn’t a massive fan of it either
Even Tom Cruise himself wasn’t happy with Cocktail, saying the 1988 film was “not a crowning jewel in my career.” He earned a Razzie Award nomination for worst actor for the film. Happily, Cruise redeemed himself in the eyes of many with his widely acclaimed performance in the Oscar-winning Rain Man, released later that year.
It was still a major hit at the box office
Despite the negative reaction from critics, Cocktail was actually a huge financial success. The film made $78.2 million at the US box office, and an additional $93.3 million globally, which represented a very healthy return on the $20 million budget. It certainly didn’t harm Cruise’s career, and he remains one of the most popular, highest-paid Hollywood actors in history more than 35 years later.
Brian Flanagan was almost twice as old in the book
In Heywood Gould’s novel, Brian Flanagan (who the author loosely modelled on himself) is 38 and described as a ‘weirdo in a field jacket with greasy, greying hair.’ Of course, when Cruise was cast the character was drastically rewritten into an ambitious, highly sexed, hyper-confident twentysomething more akin to Cruise’s Top Gun character Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell.
Disney didn’t want Tom Cruise in the lead role
Cocktail was produced by the Disney-owned Touchstone Pictures. Initially, Disney boss Michael Eisner didn’t want to pursue Tom Cruise for the project, feeling the actor was wrong for the part and would ‘never do it’. However, when it was revealed that Cruise had expressed interest in the part, Eisner changed his tune, saying ‘he’s perfect for it’, even though this meant massively rewriting the script.
Bryan Brown was cast despite completely blowing his audition
Director Roger Donaldson immediately wanted Bryan Brown for Doug Coughlin, and invited the Australian actor to audition. However, Brown had to take a 20-hour flight to New York from Sydney to read for the director. According to Donaldson, the jetlagged Brown gave a ‘dreadful’ audition, so the director refused to show the tape to anyone, instead recommending they watch Brown’s performance in F/X.
The film score was written in a weekend
Cocktail’s original score was composed by Maurice Jarre, but the producers didn’t think his work ‘fit in’ with the story. They called in J. Peter Robinson to help – but he only had three days to finish the project. Robinson apparently stayed up for 72 hours perfecting the music; not a huge amount of time to create the entire score for a major motion picture.
The Beach Boys’ Kokomo was written especially for the film
The song Kokomo was a latter-day hit for The Beach Boys, but did you know it was written specifically for Cocktail? The producers were after a song to be played as Brian moves from New York to Jamaica (hence the catchy line ‘Aruba, Jamaica’). Beach Boys singer Mike Love subsequently co-wrote the song with John Phillips, formerly of The Mamas and the Papas.
Don’t Worry Be Happy shot to popularity after the film’s release
Bobby McFerrin released Don’t Worry, Be Happy in 1988. Director Roger Donaldson first heard the song on the radio on his way to the set, and “thought it would be perfect for the film.” Cocktail popularized the song, sending it to number one. Sadly for McFerrin, Don’t Worry, Be Happy has since been widely declared one of the worst, most annoying songs ever.
Robin Williams was considered for the role of Brian Flanagan
Just to show how different Cocktail could have been if they’d stuck to the original script, one of the first actors considered for Brian Flanagan before Tom Cruise was Robin Williams. The legendary funnyman was more than a decade Cruise’s senior, and not generally considered as much of a stud. Still, Williams would later work with Cocktail director Roger Donaldson on 1990’s Cadillac Man.
Cocktail was mentioned in American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis’ notorious 1991 novel American Psycho features an imagined meeting between deranged protagonist Patrick Bateman and Tom Cruise himself. Bateman initiates conversation, commending him on his performance in Bartender. He is of course swiftly corrected by Cruise, who told him it was actually called Cocktail. Sadly, this scene wasn’t filmed when American Psycho became a movie in 2000, starring Christian Bale.
Only 24 minutes of the movie was actually filmed in Jamaica
Cocktail is famous for being partially set in Jamaica, but it doesn’t spend as much time there as you might think. Only 24 minutes of the film’s 104-minute running time are in Jamaica, with the rest of the movie taking place in New York City’s Upper East Manhattan.
Shooting in Jamaica was a lot colder than it looks
Jamaica is typically considered an idyllic, exotic setting synonymous with heat, and this is certainly how it is presented in Cocktail. In truth, though, the cast and crew were shooting there in on location in the winter, and it was considerably chillier than it looks, hence Cruise developed a cold.
Elisabeth Shue’s brother makes an appearance
You can spot Andrew Shue briefly in the background of the wedding reception scene. He’s the real-life brother of Elisabeth Shue, and a successful actor in his own right, and has starred in many high profile movies as well as having a seven-year stint on soap opera Melrose Place in the 1990s.
They made up the term ‘flugelbinder’
There’s a scene in Cocktail in which the term ‘flugelbinder’ is used to describe the plastic part at the end of the shoelace, which made their inventor a millionaire. It’s an interesting story with one minor flaw: ‘flugelbinder’ isn’t a real word. The correct term is ‘aglet,’ and they’ve actually been around since Ancient Rome, although naturally they’ve been modernized over the years.
