Fact-Checking 'The Silence of the Lambs': What Was Improvised and What Was Scripted?

Are fact-Checking 'The Silence of the Lambs': What Was Improvised and What Was Scripted something you want to understand? Read the complete facts in our feature story.

Q1: Did Ted Levine improvise "It puts the lotion on its skin"?
No. The line was written word for word by Thomas Harris in his 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs and retained in Ted Tally's Academy Award-winning screenplay. Levine's contribution was his vocal delivery and detached emotional cadence.

Q2: What was actually improvised during the filming of The Silence of the Lambs?
The most famous improvised beat was Anthony Hopkins’s chilling hissing sound following his monologue about eating a census taker's liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti. Hopkins also improvised cruel imitations of Clarice Starling's southern accent during their first meeting.

Q3: Which real-life serial killers inspired Buffalo Bill?
Thomas Harris modeled Jame Gumb on three distinct figures: Ed Gein (who constructed suits and items from skin), Gary Heidnik (who kept women captive in a basement pit), and Ted Bundy (who used a fake plaster cast to feign injury and lure victims into his van).