Trivia: None of the moths seen in the film are actual Death Head moths. In the interest of avoiding the hassle involved with actually shipping moth eggs over, then halting filming so they could be raised to the proper level of maturity, the production crew simply went with a similar looking domestic breed of moth, and glued false fingernails painted with the trademark skull like visage onto their bodies.
Trivia: Anthony Hopkins won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Hannibal Lecter, even though he's only on screen for 16 minutes.
Trivia: In the cage scene right before Hannibal kills and eats the guards, he tells them to roll up the drawings. When the guard is doing that, you can see a copy of Bon Appetit magazine on the table.
Trivia: Michelle Pfeiffer was the first choice for the role of Clarice Starling but declined due to the film's violent subject matter.
Trivia: Buffalo Bill was based on three real serial killers: Ed Gein, who skinned his victims and wore the skin; Ted Bundy, who wore a cast to appear crippled and lure unsuspecting, sympathetic women; Gary Heidnick, a man who kept the women he abducted in a pit in his basement.
Trivia: Ever get a weird feeling of nostalgia when you see the other psychopaths in Hannibal's ward? That's because one of them is them is played by Don Brockett (who played Chef Brockett on the children show "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" from 1967-1995)).
Trivia: When Anthony Hopkins was preparing to take on the role of Hannibal Lecter, he called Thomas Harris, the author of the Lecter trilogy, and gave him a sample of the Lecter voice. Harris was so frightened by the accuracy of it that he hung up on Hopkins.
Trivia: Roger Corman has a cameo as FBI Director Hayden Burke, and his portrait can be seen in one of the shots of Clarice and Ardelia.
Trivia: The late Gene Siskel was one critic who was not overly impressed with the film. When Anthony Hopkins picked up his award, he jokingly proclaimed, 'What's Gene Siskel's address? Someone give it to me please? I'd love to visit him. I'll see you soon, Gene.'
Trivia: The female dead body in the funeral home was a real actress, not a mannequin. Because the bug cocoon would be placed in her mouth until it is taken out in the middle of the examination, the prop master made the bug cocoon out of a mixture of tootsie rolls and gummie bears. This way if she accidentally swallowed it, it wouldn't do her any harm.
Trivia: In the movie, Buffalo Bill cocks his revolver and inadvertently warns Clarice he is about to fire. The book explains this was a part of his ritual to terrorize his victims before killing them. He would follow them in the dark basement until his got bored and then cock his gun so they'd know they were about to die. He expected Clarice to react the same, but she instinctively shot him before he realised what was happening. (01:49:00)
Trivia: FBI agent John Douglas made Scott Glenn (the actor who plays Jack Crawford) cry, when Glenn was at the Behavioral Sciences Unit (now called Investigative Support Unit) in Quantico, Virginia. He played a tape (sound, not video) of killers Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris torturing, raping and killing young girls (between 13-18 years old) in the back of their van. Before the encounter, Glenn was firmly against capital punishment.
Trivia: During the film's production, while Anthony Hopkins was playing Hannibal Lecter, Brian Cox (who played the character in "Manhunter") was playing King Lear at the National Theater. Ironically, during the production of "Manhunter" five years earlier, Hopkins was playing King Lear at the same theater.
Trivia: The Silence of the Lambs is the only horror movie ever to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
Trivia: At one point Brian Cox was asked to reprise his role as Hannibal Lecter but turned it down because he didn't do sequels.
Trivia: Only the third movie to win all five major Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay). The others are "It Happened One Night" (1934) and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975).
Trivia: The role of Hannibal Lecter was originally offered to Sean Connery, who turned it down.
Trivia: The role of Hannibal Lecter was originally supposed to go to Gene Hackman, who bought the rights to the source novel and had planned on directing the film himself. He backed off the project when he decided that the role was too dark for his taste, and he felt that he had already played an unlikeable character in "Mississippi Burning."
Suggested correction: There's another trivia entry here stating that the role was originally offered to Sean Connery. Please provide evidence that it's Hackman.
You're right. Sean Connery was also offered the role. Movie roles often go through multiple actors before a final choice is made. There are a ton of articles on the Internet about this, but here's one. You can easily find other sources. https://collider.com/silence-of-the-lambs-gene-hackman/.
