Fifteen babies were used in the filming of Raising Arizona. The 1987 Coen brothers comedy features quintuplets, so multiple infants were needed to portray the five babies across different scenes.
The production reportedly auditioned about 400 babies under one year old before casting 15. Infants have limited attention spans and can change quickly during a production, making a large rotation practical for continuity, scheduling, and working-time limits. One baby was reportedly dismissed after learning to walk, since the production needed babies who could remain at the developmental stage required by the story.
Raising Arizona stars Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter as H.I. and Ed, a couple who kidnaps one of the Arizona family’s quintuplets after being unable to have a child. Although the movie centers on a single kidnapped baby, the quintuplets were played by five times as many infants as the number shown in the fictional family.