The Green Mile looked like a supernatural prison drama about death row, miracles, and a gentle giant condemned for a horrifying crime. But behind John Coffey’s heartbreaking story was a production filled with unlikely casting choices, real prison history, strange Hollywood coincidences, and one extraordinary actor who had been digging gas company ditches only years before becoming an Oscar nominee.

Tom Hanks took the role partly because he owed director Frank Darabont after turning down *The Shawshank Redemption*. Shaquille O’Neal passed on playing John Coffey. Bruce Willis personally called Darabont to recommend Michael Clarke Duncan. And the production secretly built smaller furniture and manipulated perspective because several of Duncan’s co-stars were actually as tall—or taller—than he was.

These are 15 weird facts about The Green Mile — the kind that make one of the most emotional films of the 1990s feel even more extraordinary once you know what was happening behind the scenes.