20 Things You Didn't Know About Raising Arizona

The Coen Brothers have been making wonderful films since 1984, with the screwball comedy Raising Arizona being only their second outing. Having been deemed successful filmmakers with 1984's Blood Simple, their film-making journey resulted in classic after classic, including Best Picture winner No Country For Old Men.

Raising Arizona is certainly their quirkiest comedy, with a young but just an enigmatic Nicolas Cage starring as H.I. McDunnough, a petty criminal who steals a baby to raise with his wife after discovering that he is infertile. As H.I. and Ed are chased by the child's parents and a terrifying bounty hunter, the thieves take part in a hilarious and emotional journey of unconventional parenthood.

It's natural, then, that such a wacky film would have plenty of wacky behind the scenes stories. From fired babies to lizard harnesses to threats of murder, it's time to look back on the wonderful world of Raising Arizona almost 33 years later.

Child actors can be a nightmare for filmmakers, especially babies. With all sorts of child labour laws restricting how many hours a child can work, making a film that so heavily relied on babies being in shot required a lot of hirings, with the presence of quintuplets making it even more difficult.

Shooting over ten weeks, a lot can happen in a young child's development... such as learning to walk. As the film required the babies to crawl for the entirety of the movie, attempting to force a baby to do so rather than explore its exciting new venture on two feet is near impossible.

Unluckily for one of the mothers on set, her baby learned to walk during production, and was promptly fired. The mother persevered, however, and attempted to force her baby to crawl again by putting its shoes on backwards.

In case you were wondering, only one baby was selected to play Nathan Junior throughout the film: T.J. Kuhn, who now works as a real estate agent.