Trivia / Celebrity

• Acting in the Dark: Only Kenneth Branagh and Judy Davis were privy to the complete script.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $12 million. Box office, $5,078,660. This was not one of Woody Allen's better received films ^note its Rotten Tomatoes score is 41% but it didn't stop him one bit.
• Cast the Expert: Former model Charlize Theron plays a supermodel.
• Fake American: British Kenneth Branagh does a somewhat inexplicable nasal Brooklyn accent when playing Woody Allen's alter ego Lee, who's American; while Lee's wife Robin, who's implied to be American too, is played by Australian Judy Davis.
• Hostility on the Set: According to Michael Lerner, he and Woody Allen did not get along, and they got into a heated argument on the set. In an interview with The A.V. Club, Lerner called Allen "a schmuck".
• The Other Marty:
  • Woody Allen was dissatisfied with a sequence that featured Vanessa Redgrave and re-shot it with Elaine Stritch. He eventually re-wrote the material for a younger character, played in the final movie by Bebe Neuwirth.
  • Saffron Burrows was originally cast as Supermodel, but was fired and replaced with Charlize Theron.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Hugh Grant was the original choice for Lee Simon.
  • The role of Nola was intended for Drew Barrymore, but she had to decline, owing to a previous commitment to Ever After. Kate Winslet was also considered.
  • Kim Basinger was originally cast as Nicole Oliver.

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