Secrets From 1995’s ‘The Usual Suspects’ — Including How Kevin Spacey Inspired the Role of Verbal

The Usual Suspects rounded up a number of unusual actors to portray small-time criminals being controlled by an elusive “urban legend” crime lord known as Keyser Söze.

The 1995 film noir psychological crime thriller with a twist ending was directed and produced by Bryan Singer, penned by his high school buddy Christopher McQuarrie, and has a title based on a famous line uttered by Claude Rains in the 1942 film Casablanca.

The story revolves around the interrogation of Kevin Spacey’s character, Verbal, a con artist who is one of two survivors of a ship arson set by Söze that killed 27 criminals and crewmen.

Flashbacks reveal how Verbal met in a police lineup four of the other victims played by Gabriel Byrne (Dean Keaton), Stephen Baldwin (McManus), Benicio del Toro (Fenster) and Kevin Pollak (Hockney).

Chazz Palminteri plays U.S. Customs agent Dave Kujan; Pete Postlethwaite plays Söze’s alleged lawyer, Kobayashi; Suzy Amis is Keaton’s attorney, Edie; Giancarlo Esposito plays FBI agent Jack Baer; and Dan Hedaya is police sergeant Jeff Rabin.

While working on the script, McQuarrie recalled reading an article in Spy magazine called “The Usual Suspects” and thought that would be a great title, per Entertainment Weekly.

He figured the usual suspects who always get arrested for some type of crime would meet in a police lineup and decide to work together.

Ironically, the bad guy was named after a lawyer! McQuarrie reportedly said that he named the main villain after an attorney he once worked with at a law firm, according to Yardbarker.

The guy’s name: Keyser Sume. McQuarrie reportedly told him he has a great name and would be a villain in a movie script someday.

The writer changed the last name to Söze, a Turkish word that loosely translates to “talks too much.” The character name Verbal is a clue to Söze’s true identity.

In the film, Söze had murdered his own family and vanished to pull criminal activity strings behind the scenes. The character is based on the true story of John List, who killed his family and disappeared for nearly two decades before being caught, per MovieWeb.

McQuarrie said he penned the role of Verbal specifically for Spacey because the actor was little known at the time, and McQuarrie wanted audiences to dismiss him as a minor character.

Noting that the only purpose of his character, Fenster, was to die, del Toro devised his own accent and purposely mumbled his way through his lines, according to celebrity.land. Thinking del Toro’s thick accent was a joke, Singer finally embraced the idea and gave Pollak the line “What did you say?” to let the audience know that Fenster was difficult to understand.

The lineup scene where the criminals bond was supposed to be dead serious, but Pollak on the film’s special edition DVD reportedly said del Toro passed gas in a dozen takes, causing the cast to crack up.

Singer chewed them out, but that only made them laugh harder during takes. The director at last accepted the lighter tone as a way to forge the bond between the characters.

Due to personal issues, Byrne was about to drop out at the last minute, stating he would play Keaton if they filmed the New York–set film in LA and it wouldn’t take longer than five weeks, per Mental Floss. Later Byrne found out they had planned to do that all along for his part.

In one scene, a lit cigarette is flicked at Baldwin’s McManus and was supposed to hit him in the cheek. It actually hit him flush in the face, and Baldwin’s reaction was real!

Meanwhile, the role of Kujan was offered to Al Pacino, who reportedly turned it down because he had just played a cop in Heat, according to Yardbarker. He later said he regretted letting the role slip through his fingers.

The Usual Suspects was nominated for and won two Oscars — Spacey for Best Supporting Actor and McQuarrie for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

It was also a success at the box office. The film was made for a mere $6 million, and raked in a whopping $66.9 million!

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