20 facts you might not know about 'Almost Famous'

Cameron Crowe both wrote and directed Almost Famous, and he didn’t have to go far to find inspiration for the film. The filmmaker had actually written for The Rolling Stone as a teenager, just like William Miller, the main character in the film.

Crowe says that the band Stillwater — and their adventures — is based on an assortment of musical acts he had spent time with in his Rolling Stone days. There is one artist who is confident his band was part of that. In his autobiography, Gregg Allman says that a few things from the film were based on Crowe spending time with the Allman Brothers Band. That includes Duane Allman being the inspiration for the pool jump.

After Crowe chose the name Stillwater, a bump in the road arrived. There was a real, obscure Southern rock band called Stillwater that released a couple albums in the 1970s. They weren’t an inspiration for the band in the film, but since they had the name, lawyers had to get involved. According to a Stillwater member, they got “a little bit of change out of it.”

In addition to being a great Simpsons guest star one time, Peter Frampton was a big musician in the 1970s. He served as a consultant on Almost Famous to add a level of verisimilitude, and he also wrote two of Stillwater’s songs for the movie.

The other three original Stillwater songs in the movie? They were co-written by Crowe and Nancy Wilson, who was in Heart with her sister Ann. It’s not surprising that Crowe and Wilson collaborated. At the time, they were married.

Billy Crudup plays Russell Hammond, the lead guitarist of Stillwater. He did not provide the guitar work, though. For that, Crowe turned to Mike McCready, the guitarist for Pearl Jam. They had previously been involved in Crowe’s movie Singles.

No disrespect to Crudup, but a true movie star was almost in the Hammond role. Brad Pitt was cast in that part. However, during rehearsals, Pitt and Crowe came to the agreement that the actor wasn’t right for the role. That freed up the spot for Crudup.

When Pitt was going to play Russell, Sarah Polley was going to play Penny Lane. However, when Pitt dropped out, Polley followed suit. This led to Kate Hudson being cast.

Bangs, the real music critic, is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous. Unsurprisingly, Hoffman is incredible in the role. He wasn’t the only actor who wanted to play Bangs, though. Both Jack Black and Jon Favreau tried out for the part.

Jerry Cantrell, of Alice in Chains fame, was going to play Stillwater bassist Larry Fellows. This made sense, because he was not just a musician but a friend of Crowe’s who had been in Singles and Jerry Maguire. Cantrell ended up turning the role down, though, as he was working on a solo album. That led to another musician, Mark Kozalek, taking the gig.

Mitch Hedberg is a famous standup of many, and his popularity has not really dropped since his untimely death in 2005 at the age of 37. Unlike a lot of successful standups, Hedberg didn’t really ever try acting. He basically only ever had two roles in his life, plus a posthumous role in Lords of Dogtown. All of them were small, borderline cameo parts. The only movie he was in during his life (aside from an indie he wrote and directed that basically nobody has seen called “Los Enchiladas!”) was as the Eagles’ road manager in Almost Famous.

Speaking of standups, have you ever listened to Marc Maron’s podcast? If so, you have definitely heard him yelling “Lock the gates!” at the beginning of the episode, even if you are a listener that skips the monologue for the interview. That line is actually spoken by Maron in Almost Famous.

McDormand plays an indelible film mother in Almost Famous. She is also apparently based on Crowe’s own mother. Fitting to the character based on her, Crowe’s mom showed up on set to watch production. The director asked his mom not to bug McDormand, but she didn’t listen. Luckily for Crowe, his mother and McDormand got along quite well.

Even though they weren’t actually playing the music in the film, the four members of Stillwater wanted to make sure they seemed like a real band, and that they had chemistry together. In order to get in the groove together, the guys of Stillwater practiced four hours a day, five days a week, for six weeks.

You know that famous clip of Kevin Sorbo in Hercules yelling “Disappointed!” that is purportedly the actor reading the stage direction? There’s a line in Almost Famous that’s sort of like that, but it actually works. When Penny Lane asks William to go to Morocco with her, he says “Yes,” but then adds, “Ask me again.” This was actually Patrick Fugit, as an actor, asking Hudson to say her line again so he could do his line again for another take. However, Crowe really liked the way it played, so he kept it in the movie.

The one iconic scene in Almost Famous is when everybody on the tour bus sings along to “Tiny Dancer” by Elton John. One voice you won’t hear in that? Fugit’s, as Crowe said he was the worst singer in the group. In fact, Crowe dropped Fugit’s volume in post-production out of worry his singing would distract, and detract, from the moment. To defend Fugit, his voice did break during production. Puberty, right?

Crowe really wanted to include a Led Zeppelin song on the soundtrack for Almost Famous. Namely, “That’s The Way.” To try and get permission, Crowe screened the movie for Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. They liked it so much they agreed to allow the song to be on the soundtrack, something they hadn’t done since Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which had been written by Crowe. Led Zeppelin also allowed Crowe to use four Led Zeppelin songs in the movie. Not “Stairway to Heaven,” though.

Apparently, a film about a teenage boy in the 1970s writing for Rolling Stone didn’t really click with audiences. The film made $47.4 million worldwide. That was not ideal, as the film was made with a budget of $60 million, meaning it did not turn a profit.

Almost Famous did not click with audiences, but there were fans. The movie has an 89 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Roger Ebert gave it four stars. It also won Best Film – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes. Kate Hudson won a Globe as well. Hudson, and McDormand, were both nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars. Crowe, meanwhile, actually won for Best Original Screenplay.

Crowe began writing a stage musical version of Almost Famous in 2018, and it debuted in 2019 just before the pandemic. They persevered, and it has been announced Almost Famous will debut on Broadway in the fall of 2022.