One of my all-time favourite films, One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest, was made with the help of real mental patients in front of and behind the camera. This excellent Guardian Unlimited article also reveals how Burt Reynolds was the first choice for the part of RP McMurphy and that Milos Forman only got his job because the producers (Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz) wanted a cheap director. Filmed almost entirely at Oregon State Mental Hospital in Salem, "when the actors took initial tours of the ward it was the patients who were scared by what they saw, not the other way round".
Posted by Joe at June 13, 2003 02:34 PM