This is one of my favorite movies, but there were so many ways the true story was altered to where it almost hurts: David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980).

For one, the real man’s name was Joseph Merrick, not John Merrick. Second, he was never forcibly entered into the freak show against his will and abused by his manager. In actuality, Merrick sought out a job in the freak show himself after being unsuccessful at other jobs + HATED the workhouse. He had a very good relationship with his manager (who was named Tom Norman irl, not “Bytes”). Apparently, he made a pretty hefty amount of money doing freak shows.

The film never went into his childhood and gave a false impression that he felt like a disappointment to his mother. In actuality, he and his mother were very close (she was the only person he was really close to besides Mr. Treves and Norman). She was handicapped and died at a young age. Merrick also had siblings who were sickly (but not grossly disfigured as Merrick was) who died at young ages. His father was the abusive one, along with his stepmother.

He wasn’t kidnapped by his manager after Treves housed him in the London Hospital. Merrick himself sought out a new manager after freak shows were starting to become culturally taboo (and illegal), and he felt like that was the only place he could generate some kind of income. So, he got the new manager and they moved him over to Belgium. THAT new manager wasn’t as good as Norman, and ended up stealing Merrick’s earnings. That’s when Merrick sought out going back to Treves (he had a card in his pocket after a prior meeting), and they sent him to the London Hospital where he’d eventually live out his final days.

He also never met Madge Kendall irl. They only communicated with letters.

The paper church he built wasn’t some artistic masterpiece he designed completely by himself, as depicted in the film. It was one of those pre-made paper models that you could assemble.

Part of me would like for there to be another adaptation that represents the REAL true story of what happened to Merrick, but the other part of me thinks no one could do that role justice besides John Hurt.