Trivia / Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

• Ability over Appearance: George talks about how he's always been lean, which isn't a fitting description of Tracy Letts who portrayed him in the 2013 Broadway revival. Nevertheless, his work was universally acclaimed and won him a Tony. Of course, given George's penchant for lying, it's not far fetched that he was just lying about that too.
• Billing Displacement: Richard Burton is billed second behind Elizabeth Taylor even though he has the most screentime and dialogue.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Mike Nichols as a film director.
• The Cast Showoff: Already playing a difficult role throughout, George's actor gets to speak several sentences in Latin throughout the final act.
• Creator Couple: George and Martha were played in the film version by then-couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Elizabeth Taylor gained weight and had the requisite make up and hair dye to play the middle-aged, blowzy Martha.
• Fake American: Richard Burton was Welsh, while Elizabeth Taylor was English-American.
• Genius Bonus: In the film version - also counts as a subtle Foreshadowing. What is the tune George chooses on the jukebox in the roadhouse that enrages Martha? "The Gypsy Chorus" from Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore, an opera whose main plot revolves about the lost son who dies in the end.
  • And the Latin passages which George reads from the book are parts of the Catholic requiem mass - which is almost a Five-Second Foreshadowing.
• Hypothetical Casting: Edward Albee wanted James Mason and Bette Davis for the leads.
• Reality Subtext: The revelations after the film version was released that Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's marriage was pretty troubled too (already on top of the scandalous circumstances in which they started their relationship) led to the film version to be practically considered an unintentional documentary about the couple.
• Referenced by...: Has its own page.
• Underage Casting: Elizabeth Taylor was in her thirties when she played the fifty-something Martha.
• What Could Have Been:
  • James Mason, Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon and Peter O'Toole were considered for George.
  • Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, Patricia Neal and Rosalind Russell were considered for Martha.
  • Warren Beatty, Roddy McDowall and Robert Redford were considered for Nick.
  • John Frankenheimer was considered to direct.

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