Where to watch Moonlight (2016)

Trivia & production notes

• Tarell Alvin McCraney wrote the semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue in 2003 as a way to process his mother's death from AIDS, and the play sat unused for about a decade before becoming the basis for the film.
• Barry Jenkins wrote the first draft of the Moonlight screenplay during a month-long trip to Brussels after being introduced to McCraney's play through the Borscht arts collective in Miami.
• Jenkins restructured McCraney's original three-part play, which featured the same characters simultaneously, into distinct chronological chapters that follow Chiron's story from an outside perspective.
• A24 financed Moonlight and handled its worldwide distribution, marking the company's first production venture.
• Trevante Rhodes originally auditioned for the role of Kevin before being cast as adult Chiron instead.
• André Holland had read McCraney's original play a decade before the film's release and had previously acted in other plays by McCraney.
• Naomie Harris initially hesitated to take the role of Paula because she was reluctant to play a stereotypical depiction of a Black woman, but Jenkins convinced her by explaining the character was based on the real mothers of both he and McCraney.
• The film was shot in just 25 days, with Jenkins deliberately keeping the three actors who played Chiron separated during filming to prevent them from imitating each other, resulting in them filming in distinct two-week periods.
• Naomie Harris completed all of her scenes in three days without any rehearsals, while André Holland filmed all of his scenes in five days.
• Despite Florida offering no tax incentives for film production, the creative team chose to shoot there anyway to maintain authenticity, a decision that could have cost the production up to 30% of its budget in lost incentives from other states.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Moonlight (2016 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.