13 On-Set Secrets About "The Green Mile"

One of the most mesmerizing performances I’ve ever seen from Tom Hanks was on the big screen version of Stephen King’s book.

The Green Mile was not overtly terrifying as King’s usual stuff but I had to reconsider a lot about my life.

If you don’t know, the movie follows the story of a group of Death Row guards who are introduced to a hulking black man who is accused heinous acts. SPOILERS AHEAD. But the movie had a bunch of cool things that happened behind the scenes, like…

1. The electrocution creeped out Stephen King. Stephen King sat in the electrocution chair, “Old Sparky,” and was strapped in during a set visit but didn’t like the feeling.

Tom Hanks said he didn’t feel right sitting in the chair too.

2. There’s a 2013 Reddit thread trying to figure out just how old the 108-year-old Paul will live after being given unnatural long life by John Coffey’s power.

The character wonders how long he has to live for. The theory uses the magically-infected mouse Mr. Jingles. Answers vary from 200 to 10 quadrillion years. 

3. The intimidating yet gentile inmate John Coffey was difficult to cast so Bruce Willis stepped in and said he had just worked with Michael Clarke Duncan on Armageddon and said he was a boss.

Bruce told the director, “I’ve found your John Coffey.” Director Frank Darabont too thought he was a boss.

4. There were 30… THIRTY different Mr. Jingles were trained for this movie, apparently.

Although estimates have the number of trained mice pegged at 15.