Silence of the Lambs was a huge success and the director, the lead actor and the lead actress all won Oscars for their performances. In fact the Best Actor award for Anthony Hopkins as the psychotic Hannibal Lecter is a record holder. It is the shortest performance, at just sixteen minutes of screen time, to have ever won an Oscar. Director Jonathan Demme and actress Jodie Foster also won awards but the production could have had a very different cast and crew.

Dino De Laurentiis actually gave the rights to Silence of the Lambs away for free to Orion Pictures after Manhunter flopped. The veteran producer thought this film would also fail. Gene Hackman bought the rights and was planning to direct and star but he changed his mind deciding it was too violent. Jonathan Demme stepped in and set about putting together the cast.

His first choice for the infamous role of Dr. Hannibal Lecter was Sean Connery who turned it down. Other leading men rumoured to have been considered for the role include John Hurt, Christopher Lloyd, Patrick Stewart, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Duvall, Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro. Some are easier to imagine than others and you would hope that some of those names were never seriously in the running. The part was offered to Jeremy Irons but he rejected it. Eventually Demme cast Hopkins in the role which would make him a superstar. He later said he cast Hopkins after seeing him in The Elephant Man. When Hopkins complained “But Dr. Treves was a good man.” Demme apparently replied “So is Lecter, he is a good man too. Just trapped in an insane mind.”

Jodie Foster tried to buy the rights after reading the book by Thomas Harris and she campaigned hard to get the part of Clarice Starling. Demme decided that he wanted Michelle Pfeiffer instead but she felt the film was too violent and was uncomfortable about doing it so she turned it down. Demme met with Foster, saw her conviction and agreed she was right for the part.

Jack Crawford the elderly FBI agent from the novel caused another quandary for the film makers. They eventually cast Scott Glenn in the role but before he was confirmed they considered Kenneth Branagh, Michael Keaton and Mickey Rourke. In his preparation for the role Scott Glenn spoke with real life agent John Douglas. He made the mistake of listening to one minute of real life audio of two serial killers torturing teenage girls. He later said it had a horrible effect on him and he has been unable to ever forget what he heard.

There are several cameo appearances in the film including one by the director Jonathan Demme himself who can be seen wearing a blue cap at the end of the film. There is also an appearance by Roger Corman as the FBI director. George A. Romero appears as well, accompanying Chilton and the two guards who remove Starling after her last meeting with Lecter. The producer, Edward Saxon, leant his likeness to the head in the jar.