u/tyrion2024

TIL while attempting to land a role in The Wire, Idris Elba hid his English accent from series creator David Simon to prove he was "American enough" for the part. In his 4th audition, Simon found out. However, by that time Elba had already impressed Simon enough to convince him to give Elba the role

▲ 2.3k r/todayilearned

TIL while attempting to land a role in The Wire, Idris Elba hid his English accent from series creator David Simon to prove he was "American enough" for the part. In his 4th audition, Simon found out. However, by that time Elba had already impressed Simon enough to convince him to give Elba the role

pastemagazine.com

u/tyrion2024 — 14 hours ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 25.4k r/todayilearned

TIL in 2001 Sharon Stone arranged a private visit to the LA Zoo's komodo dragon pen for her then-husband, who'd always wanted to see one up close. However, the dragon attacked him by biting his foot and attempting to eat it by jerking back & forth. He survived, but the top half of his foot was gone.

smithsonianmag.com

u/tyrion2024 — 4 days ago

▲ 351 r/todayilearned

TIL in 2024 Sony Music Publishing purchased Queen's recorded music catalog and additional rights for $1.27 billion from Queen (Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon & the estate of Freddie Mercury), which is the largest amount ever paid for a recording artist's body of work.

en.wikipedia.org

u/tyrion2024 — 4 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 31.6k r/todayilearned

TIL Margot Robbie convinced Martin Scorsese to cast her in The Wolf of Wall Street by hauling off & giving Leonardo DiCaprio an improvised "thunderclap of a slap on the face" during her first audition that stunned DiCaprio & Scorsese. Both men burst out laughing afterwards and thought it was great.

u/tyrion2024 — 5 days ago

▲ 2.7k r/todayilearned

TIL Wish was valued at $14 billion in 2020, however, it sold for just $173 million to Singapore's Qoo10 four years later in 2024.

u/tyrion2024 — 5 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 32.9k r/Frasier+1 crossposts

TIL a man watching an episode of the "Antiques Roadshow" noticed a Navajo blanket, that was similar to one his grandma left him (and had been sitting in his closet for years), be appraised for $300K-$500K. He then got his blanket authenticated and put it up for auction where it sold for $1.5 million

u/ieattastyrocks — 5 days ago

▲ 1.2k r/todayilearned

TIL a family of three, flying out of NYC, canceled their weekend trip to Fort Lauderdale after they negotiated with Delta Air Lines to each be paid $3,650 in gift cards of their choice for voluntarily giving up their seats on 2 flights. Delta also refunded their original tickets which were $650 each

u/tyrion2024 — 5 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 7.1k r/todayilearned

TIL the one scene that Steven Spielberg directed that made him cry on set was in Lincoln (2012); it's a four-minute speech given by Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln trying to explain to his cabinet the urgency of passing the 13th Amendment (which abolished slavery) into Constitutional law.

u/tyrion2024 — 5 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 16.2k r/todayilearned

TIL the Maldives became the first country in the world to enforce a nationwide generational smoking ban, barring anyone born on or after January 1, 2007 from ever buying, using or smoking tobacco. The country already had a complete ban on vapes and e-cigarettes, regardless of age.

u/tyrion2024 — 5 days ago

▲ 9 r/todayilearned

TIL there are only 10 airlines in the world that have a 5-star rating and 9 of them are in Asia.

en.wikipedia.org

u/tyrion2024 — 5 days ago

▲ 3.1k r/todayilearned

TIL in 2014 it was shown for the first time that a species of dolphin, the long-finned pilot whale, has more neocortical neurons than any mammal studied to date including humans. It is generally agreed that the growth of the neocortex has been responsible for the evolution of human intelligence.

en.wikipedia.org

u/tyrion2024 — 7 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 30.3k r/todayilearned

TIL Groupon has lost more than 95% of its value since it rejected Google's $6 billion offer and instead went public with a $17.8 billion market cap 15 years ago.

u/tyrion2024 — 7 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 10.1k r/todayilearned

TIL Guillermo del Toro cast Charlie Day in Pacific Rim after he saw Day's monologue about killing rats in "Charlie Kelly: King of the Rats". Del Toro said, "It was very funny, but he was coming from character...he was really mourning and lamenting". He thought Day was "great at shading and comedy".

u/tyrion2024 — 10 days ago

▲ 4.6k r/todayilearned

TIL a man named Brian MacKinnon graduated from the same high school in Scotland twice. First time was in 1980 & the second time was in 1994 after he re-enrolled under a fake name in order to get a second shot at medical school. Which he had until a newspaper exposed him during his first year in 1995

en.wikipedia.org

u/tyrion2024 — 10 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 10.5k r/boxoffice+1 crossposts

TIL three of the top five highest-grossing R-rated films of all time are the three Deadpool movies: Deadpool (5th, $782.6 million), Deadpool 2 (4th, $785.8 million), and Deadpool & Wolverine (1st, $1.33 billion).

en.wikipedia.org

u/Prof-Ponderosa — 10 days ago

▲ 38 r/todayilearned

TIL in 2022 a kindergartner in Michigan brought a bottle of Jose Cuervo margarita mix (with 10% alcohol content) to school & shared it with 4 of her classmates during snack time before a teacher stopped it. They thought they were drinking juice until the child who brought it told them it was alcohol

u/tyrion2024 — 10 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 9.2k r/todayilearned

TIL reliable sources are split as to whether the title of best-selling video game ever should belong to Tetris or Minecraft. Some consider it to be Tetris by combining the sales of all of its different versions (520m), while others consider it to be Minecraft (350m), rejecting the former's reasoning

en.wikipedia.org

u/tyrion2024 — 12 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 6.2k r/Jaws+1 crossposts

TIL Peter Benchley, the author of the book that Jaws adapted, wrote 3 versions of the script for Spielberg, which were either rejected or heavily edited. Benchley got into an argument with Spielberg about the huge explosion at the end being unrealistic. This led to Benchley being thrown off the set.

faroutmagazine.co.uk

u/tyrion2024 — 12 days ago

▲ 0 r/todayilearned

TIL no one ever successfully completed the "Hail Mary Challenge" at Stadium Grill in Columbia, Missouri. Hundreds of people (including a competitive eater) failed in the attempt. It involved finishing an 8-inch tall burger that contained more than 5lbs of meat & a full pound of fries within 60min.

u/tyrion2024 — 13 days ago

🔥 Hot ▲ 6.8k r/todayilearned

TIL when an Oregon man who stole an SUV parked outside a market noticed that a 4-year-old boy was in the backseat, he returned the boy to his mom & lectured her for leaving the boy alone. He threatened to turn her in before driving off again. Though the SUV was found nearby, the man wasn't captured.

u/tyrion2024 — 13 days ago