50 Fun Facts About Shakespeare in Love

Who directed Shakespeare in Love?

He had just directed Mrs Brown; Zwick, the original director, ended up as a producer.

Who plays William Shakespeare?

The same year he played Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, another Best Picture nominee.

What is the name of Gwyneth Paltrow's character?

The role earned Paltrow the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Which play is Shakespeare writing during the film?

It begins life as a comedy with a much sillier title.

What is the working title of Will's stalled comedy at the start of the film?

Marlowe hands him the plot that turns it into a tragedy.

Under what male name does Viola audition?

The Queen later pretends Kent is simply a man with a remarkable resemblance to a woman.

Which theatre does Philip Henslowe own in the film?

Burbage's rival Curtain Theatre hosts the play after the Rose is shut down.

Who plays Henslowe?

He earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination for it, one of three costume dramas he made in 1998.

Who plays Queen Elizabeth I?

The role won her the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.

Roughly how much screen time did Dench joke she had when accepting her Oscar?

She quipped that she should only get a little bit of the statuette.

Which aristocrat is Viola betrothed to?

The Earl of Wessex title had not existed for over 500 years in Shakespeare's day.

Who plays Wessex?

Prince Edward reportedly asked for the Wessex earldom after seeing Firth's character.

How much is the wager over whether a play can show the true nature of love?

It is exactly the sum Will needs to buy a share in the Chamberlain's Men.

Which fellow playwright does Will impersonate when confronted by Wessex?

When Marlowe is later killed, a guilt-ridden Will assumes Wessex ordered the murder.

Who plays Marlowe?

He shares a scene with Martin Clunes's Burbage over payment for The Massacre at Paris.

Which role does Ben Affleck play?

The Miramax boss persuaded him to take the small part of the leading tragedian.

The creepy boy who plays with mice and enjoys Titus Andronicus grows up to be which real playwright?

His plays The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil are famous for their gore.

Why is the Rose closed down by the Master of the Revels?

Webster spies on the lovers and informs Tilney.

Why does Viola end up playing Juliet on opening day?

Will himself has taken the role of Romeo after losing his lead actor.

Where does the Queen order Viola to sail with Wessex?

It's an anachronism: the Colony of Virginia did not yet exist.

The Queen tells Will to write something more cheerful next time, for which occasion?

The final image imagines a woman named Viola disguised as a man after a shipwreck.

Viola's disguised audition speech comes from which play?

Kent then runs off when Will starts asking questions.

Who first suggested the idea for the film to screenwriter Marc Norman?

Norman's son Zachary floated it in the late 1980s.

Which playwright was hired to rewrite Norman's screenplay?

His first big success had been the Shakespeare-themed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.

Which star was attached to play Viola in the 1991 Universal version that collapsed?

She walked out six weeks before shooting, and canceling cost Universal $6 million.

Roberts insisted that only which actor could play Shakespeare?

He wasn't interested, and she withdrew when she couldn't persuade him.

Which actress turned down Viola after the success of Titanic?

She chose to pursue independent films instead; Ryder, Diane Lane and Robin Wright were also considered.

The film's Best Picture win controversially defeated which movie?

It was the first comedy to win Best Picture since Annie Hall.

Which actress was the Best Actress frontrunner that Paltrow beat?

Blanchett was nominated for playing the same queen, Elizabeth I, in Elizabeth.

How many Oscars did Shakespeare in Love win?

It led the field with thirteen nominations.

Who hosted the 1999 Oscar ceremony where the film won?

It was her third time hosting.

Who beat the film's director to the Best Director Oscar that night?

The film also won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

Which studio boss gave himself a producer credit on the film, prompting a new Producers Guild rule?

The rule requires a producer to have done real work on the film to earn the Producers Guild credit.

Who composed the Oscar-winning score?

He first became known for the music to Prime Suspect.

Who won her first costume design Oscar for the film, having also been nominated that year for Velvet Goldmine?

She deliberately sacrificed historical accuracy for what one critic called emotional accuracy.

Which 1941 novel did Private Eye note as strikingly similar to the film's plot?

Ned Sherrin admitted lending the co-writer a copy, but said Norman had developed the plot independently.

Which bestselling author sued the writers in 1999, claiming the plot was stolen from her novel?

The suit was filed six days before the Oscars; Miramax called it a publicity stunt.

Which stately home stood in for the de Lesseps mansion?

Hatfield House was used for the fireworks scene instead.

Which scene was reshot after test screenings to make it more emotional?

The ending was also reshot several times until the writers hit on the final idea.

Roughly how much did the film gross worldwide on a $25M budget?

It was the ninth-highest-grossing film of 1998.

Who adapted the film for the 2014 West End stage production?

It opened at the Noël Coward Theatre and was called 'a love letter to theatre' by The Guardian.

The Writers Guild of America ranked the screenplay where on its 2005 list of the greatest ever?

The script also took the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Which studio released Shakespeare in Love in the United States in December 1998?

Universal, which had cancelled its own 1991 version, handled the UK release the following January.

In the film, Richard Burbage owns which rival playhouse where Romeo and Juliet is finally staged?

Burbage offers his stage after the Master of the Revels shuts the Rose, and Will himself steps in to play Romeo.

Which British actor plays Richard Burbage in Shakespeare in Love?

Burbage promises Marlowe payment 'tomorrow' for his final act, sending the poet off to Deptford and his death.

Shakespeare in Love was the first comedy to win Best Picture since which 1977 film?

A 2015 Hollywood Reporter survey suggested most Academy members would now give the 1998 award to Saving Private Ryan instead.

Which royal reportedly asked to be made Earl of Wessex after watching Colin Firth's character?

He had been expected to become Duke of Cambridge on marrying Sophie Rhys-Jones in 1999, the year after the film came out.

In the film, Marlowe leaves Burbage unpaid and departs for which place, where he is killed?

Will assumes Wessex had Marlowe killed, while Viola briefly believes the dead man is Shakespeare himself.

Which Hertfordshire stately home was the location for the film's fireworks scene?

Other locations included Holkham beach in Norfolk, the chapel at Eton College and the Great Hall of Middle Temple.

Julia Roberts quit the 1991 version after a final screen test opposite which actor?

Cancelling the production cost Universal $6 million, and the script went into turnaround before Miramax picked it up.