Trivia for
Do the Right Thing (1989) More at IMDbPro »

• According to Rosie Perez, her face is not shown in her nude scene because she felt exploited and was crying. She later decided she didn't mind and appeared nude again in other movies.
  
  
• The opening line is "Wake up," while the closing line in Spike Lee's previous film, School Daze, was also "Wake up."
  
  
• Radio Raheem's (Bill Nunn) description of his four finger rings (Love and Hate) is a homage to Rev. Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in to The Night of the Hunter (1955)
  
  
• Spike Lee originally wanted Robert De Niro for the role of Sal. But De Niro turned down the part, saying that it was too similar to many of the parts he had played in the past.
  
  
• The character of Smiley was not originally in the script. Roger Guenveur Smith approached Spike Lee requesting a role, and his scenes were added in during shooting.
  
  
• The key scene when Danny Aiello and John Turturro talk alone approximately midway through the film was partly improvised. The scripted scene ended as the character Smiley approached the window. Everything after that until the end of the scene was completely ad-libbed.
  
  
• This film was inspired by an actual incident in New York where some black youths were chased out of a pizzeria by some white youths in a section of New York known as Howard Beach.
  
  
• Spike Lee's first choice for the role of Pino was Matt Dillon.
  
  
• All of the scenes of the "Corner Men" Robin Harris, Paul Benjamin, and Frankie Faison were improvised.
  
  
• In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #96 Greatest Movie of All Time. It was the first inclusion of this film on the list.
  
  
• The word 'fuck' is used approximately 240 times in this film, a rate of two a minute.
  
  
• Graffiti on the wall behind Mookie and Jade reads "Tawana told the truth" in reference to the Tawana Brawley alleged rape and abduction case of 1987.
  
  
• The story takes place at the intersection of Bedford and Stuyvesant Avenues. In reality, the two do not cross each other, however the film was shot in the Bed-Stuy section of Brooklyn.
  
  
• The building Sal's Pizzeria was in did not exist before shooting. Rather, it was constructed on an empty lot by the production company, and subsequently torn down after shooting wrapped.
  
  
• Martin Lawrence's feature film debut.
  
  
• President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama reportedly saw this movie on their first date in 1989.
  
  
• The scene in which Sal (Danny Aiello) and Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) argue about there being no African-Americans on the wall of the restaurant - only "American Italians" - is somewhat ironic, as Giancarlo Esposito is an Italian-American.
  
  
• The title comes from a Malcolm X quote: "You've got to do the right thing."
  
  

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