26 Random facts about umbrella academy
1. The Umbrella Academy was written by Gerard Way, the singer of My Chemical Romance, who channeled his own painful feelings into the series when his band was going through turmoil while the verge of breaking up.
2. The Netflix series was originally supposed to be a movie with Universal Pictures.
3. The actor who plays Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) is only 15 years old.
4. Elliot Page said playing the violin is hard work. She actually had a violin double — a 16-year-old prodigy named Imogen.
5. Modern technology does not exist in the Umbrella Academy world. Ellen, Aidan, and Robert Sheehan (who plays Klaus) all agreed that they preferred the world without technology.
6. Aidan was late in auditioning for the role of Five. In fact, he was the last person to read for the part and because of this, thought he didn't have a shot.
7. After Aidan booked the role, he looked to the comics to study the way Gabriel drew Five to make sure he got Five's posture right.
8. Mary J. Blige said she had to go to "really bad places" to get in the mindset of a character (Cha-Cha) who was so empty inside.
9. Mary J. Blige's favorite scene to shoot was the fighting scene with Hazel — but she HATED the masks they had to wear.
10. Aidan's first day on set was shooting the final scene of the pilot with Elliot Page, who plays Vanya.
11. Steve Blackman (the showrunner) was actually concerned about not being able to cast Five. He'd seen hundreds of kids audition, but it wasn't until he got Aidan's tape that he knew that he was perfect for Five.
12. Aidan had read and was a fan of the graphic novels before auditioning.
13. The team who brought Pogo to life were the same ones who worked on Planet of the Apes.
14. While nobody took anything from set, the cast said they were given an umbrella to keep after wrap.
15. The show was filmed in Toronto between the months of January and July.
16. During the funeral scene, it was about negative 10 degrees (!!!!) in Toronto when they had to produce artificial rain to dump upon the cast.
17. You might recognize Emmy Raver-Lampman (who plays Allison) from both Hamilton and Wicked on Broadway.
18. Emmy said the siblings all bonded for the first time when they huddled around the space heaters in between each take of that funeral scene.
19. Emmy and Tom Hopper (who plays Luther) were trying to shoot the telephone booth scene before the sun came up. It was also the last scene to shoot before wrapping the entire season.
20. Emmy says that she considers Tom one of her best friends now.
21. Gerard Way said he began drawing some of the characters for his series backstage before shows.
22. From the get go, Mary J. Blige wanted to do a lot of her own stunts. On the initial call with Blackman she said, "If you let me punch and shoot and do my stunts, I’m in.”
23. In fact, Mary J. Blige had martial arts training every day of the shoot in Toronto.
24. Tom wore a muscle suit to make him look bigger. He originally wanted to bulk up for the role but couldn't gain enough to make his character look the way he should.
25. Cameron Britton (who plays Hazel) knew he would be fast friends with Mary J. Blige when they both realized they had similar styles of humor.
26. Surprisingly, Gerard did not have much input in the music featured in the show. Steve's vision was very specific for the songs he wanted.
*found this on buzzfeed*
