20 facts you might not know about 'Lincoln'

Way back in 1999, Spielberg was consulting historian Doris Kearns Goodwin for a project. She mentioned her plans to write a book about Abraham Lincoln. Spielberg immediately said he wanted the film rights to the book, and DreamWorks bought the rights in 2001. Goodwin’s book Team of Rivals wouldn’t come out until 2005.

John Logan, the writer of films such as Gladiator and The Aviator, was the first screenwriter hired to tackle a Lincoln biopic for Spielberg. His script was focused on Lincoln’s relationship with Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist.

After Logan finished his script, Spielberg hired the playwright to rewrite the screenplay. The plan was for Webb to finish the screenplay and for the film to start shooting in January 2006. However, Spielberg was reportedly not happy with the script and nixed plans to begin shooting. Evidently, Webb had fleshed out the script to cover Lincoln’s entire presidency.

Not happy with his script, Spielberg brought in former collaborator Tony Kushner. Kushner had co-written Munich, but he was — and arguably is still — best known as a playwright. He won a Tony for his play Angels in America.

Kushner read a bunch of books on Lincoln, and maybe he took on too much in his brain. The first draft of Kushner’s screenplay was a staggering 500 pages. For reference, traditionally one page equals one minute on screen. Yeah, 500 pages is a looooong movie. However, Kushner rewrote it, shrunk the scope of his film, and turned in a manageable screenplay. He is the only writer to get credit for the film.

Spielberg went to Daniel Day-Lewis in 2003 to gauge his interest in playing Lincoln. Day-Lewis turned him down, calling the idea of him playing the 16th President “preposterous.” In 2010, needing a new actor for Lincoln, Spielberg went back to DDL. This time, the British actor agreed.

Between 2003 and 2010? Spielberg had his Lincoln. He cast Liam Neeson in the part, who had starred in the director’s Schindler’s List. Neeson was cast in 2005, but in 2010, things changed. Neeson said he had a “thunderbolt moment” during a table read where he realized he was not ready for the part. He was worried that at 58 — older than Lincoln when he died — he was becoming too old for the role. Additionally, between being cast and leaving the film, Neeson’s wife Natasha Richardson tragically died.

Day-Lewis’ accent as Lincoln garnered much attention, for better or worse. Near as anybody knows, though, it was accurate. Reportedly, and for unknown reasons, once Day-Lewis landed on the voice he wanted to use, he recorded it and sent it to Spielberg inside a box with a skull and crossbones. The actor spoke in his Lincoln voice on set throughout the shoot, presumably to make sure he didn’t lose it. We base that on the fact he asked British crew members not to talk to him on set, presumably out of fear it would cause his accent to slip. Spielberg, for his part, said, “I never once looked the gift horse in the mouth. I never asked Daniel about his process. I didn't want to know" (h/t The New York Times).

Field had cache as an Oscar winner, and she really, really wanted to play Mary Todd Lincoln. Spielberg was skeptical. Field was 10 years older than Day-Lewis and 20 years older than the real Mary Todd. That didn’t deter Field. As Field explained, “I knew I was right for this part and begged [Spielberg] to let me audition for it. He was kind enough to do that and Daniel is such a sweetheart that he flew over from his home in Ireland to screen test with me. I'll love him forever for that" (h/t Deadline).

Hal Holbrook plays Francis Preston Blair in Lincoln, but he was no stranger to this time period. The actor previously played Lincoln himself in both Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln and North and South, two TV miniseries.

This is a historical film, and Spielberg was dedicated to accuracy. When it came to lobbyist William N. Bilbo, they had to be creative. The thing is, no known photos of Bilbo exist. That means they had to use descriptions of the man to craft the look of James Spader’s character.

Asa-Luke Twocrow happened to be the spitting image of Lieutenant Colonel Ely S. Parker, Ulysses S. Grant’s military secretary and a member of the Seneca tribe. He was working on the film but as a member of the rigging crew. The casting department asked him to step into the role. Twocrow put on his costume, shot his scene, and went right back to his rigging work.

Mr. and Mrs. Jolly, the couple with a dispute related to a tollbooth, are played by Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel. In a way, Camp and Marvel joined in on the method aura of the Lincoln set. The two are married in real life.

Spielberg shot at the Virginia Capitol Building in Richmond for the US Capitol and some exteriors of the White House. If you are a history buff, you know Richmond was the Confederacy's capital. Not only that, the Virginia Capitol Building serving as the US Capitol Building in Lincoln was the Capitol Building of the Confederacy.

Day-Lewis is famous for his on-set intensity and his method acting. This time around, Spielberg got on board. For the entire three-and-a-half months they were filming, the director called DDL “Mr. President” and called Field “Mrs. Lincoln.” He wore a suit on set every day. On that front, Spielberg explained on 60 Minutes, “I think I wanted to get into the role, more than anything else, of being part of that experience - because we were recreating a piece of history. And so I didn't want to look like the schlubby, baseball-cap-wearing 21st-century guy; I wanted to be like the cast" (h/t Vanity Fair).

Spielberg is a big name in film, but Lincoln is a somewhat dry biopic, even if it is about the most beloved President ever. Would the movie really be a box office success? It would! With a budget of $65 million, Lincoln made $182.2 million domestically and $275.3 million worldwide. The distributor Disney had to order up new prints of the film, as they had failed to account for the demand to screen the movie across North America.

The 13th Amendment, which outlaws slavery in the United States, is at the core of Lincoln. However, while the amendment passed, the movie helped illuminate a historical outlier. Dr. Ranjan Batra looked into the amendment's history after seeing Lincoln and found that Mississippi had never officially ratified the amendment. He told his colleague Ken Sullivan, who told Mississippi’s Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann. The state would formally ratify the 13th Amendment in 2013, thanks in part to inspiration drawn from Lincoln.

Lincoln was a critical darling, and it lived up to expectations as a favorite of the Academy Awards. The film was nominated for 12 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. This made it the most-nominated film of 2012.

Out of those 12 nominations, Lincoln got two wins. One was for Best Production Design. The other went to Day-Lewis for Best Actor. This was a historical win. The victory made Day-Lewis the first three-time winner of Best Actor.

When Day-Lewis won his Best Actor Oscar, he didn’t just set an Academy Awards record. He also made history relating to his iconic director. Day-Lewis was the first actor to win an Oscar in a Spielberg-directed movie. Since Lincoln, Mark Rylance and Ariana DeBose have also done it. It’s a freakin’ Oscar winners jamboree!