49 Fun Facts About Shakespeare in Love

Who directed Shakespeare in Love?

John Madden was hired after the studio passed over Edward Zwick, who had nursed the project for years; Zwick stayed on as a producer and collected a Best Picture Oscar anyway.

Who plays William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love?

Joseph Fiennes landed the part years after his brother Ralph had screen-tested for it in an earlier version of the film that collapsed before shooting.

Who plays Viola de Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love?

Gwyneth Paltrow won the Best Actress Oscar for the part, accepting it in a pink Ralph Lauren gown she had picked out herself with no stylist.

In Shakespeare in Love, theatre owner Henslowe insists audiences want love and a bit with what?

A dog is Henslowe's formula for a hit, so he is crestfallen when Will's new tragedy turns out to have "no dog of any kind".

In Shakespeare in Love, what is the working title of Will's stalled comedy?

Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter goes nowhere until rival playwright Christopher Marlowe casually hands Will the plot over a drink, feuding families and doomed best friend included.

Under what male name does Viola audition in Shakespeare in Love?

Thomas Kent is her alias, and the Queen later saves the whole company from arrest by declaring Kent merely a man with a remarkable resemblance to a woman.

Which theatre does Philip Henslowe own in Shakespeare in Love?

The Rose was a real Bankside playhouse; when builders uncovered its foundations in 1989, Britain's leading actors linked arms with campaigners to stop the bulldozers.

Who plays theatre owner Philip Henslowe in Shakespeare in Love?

Geoffrey Rush plays the debt-ridden impresario, who opens the film with his feet held over hot coals by a moneylender he promptly talks into becoming his partner.

Who plays Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love?

Judi Dench won an Oscar for the role, and the filmmakers then gave her the film's full-size replica playhouse, which she kept in storage for years hoping to see it rebuilt as a working theatre.

Accepting her Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, the actress playing Elizabeth I joked she had been on screen for how long?

Eight minutes was her own count: she told the audience that for so little screen time she should only get a little bit of the statuette, and it remains one of the briefest Oscar-winning turns.

In Shakespeare in Love, what does Lord Wessex chiefly want from marrying Viola?

Her father's money is the whole bargain: Wessex offers an ancient name to a merchant's grandchildren and, as he tells Viola flatly, gets to recover his fortune in return.

Who plays Lord Wessex in Shakespeare in Love?

Colin Firth plays the villain years after reading for the hero: he was one of the actors tried out as Shakespeare for an earlier version of the film that was never made.

In Shakespeare in Love, Will goads Wessex into a £50 wager while disguised as what?

A chaperone: Will goes to court in a dress as Viola's country cousin and baits Wessex into betting £50, exactly the sum he needs to buy into an acting company.

In Shakespeare in Love, why does Will feel guilty when Marlowe is killed?

He gave Marlowe's name as his own when a jealous Wessex confronted him at the ball, so when news of the stabbing arrives Will assumes the revenge fell on the wrong man.

Who plays Christopher Marlowe in Shakespeare in Love?

Rupert Everett plays him as the star Will lives in the shadow of: even the boatman rowing Will across the Thames brags that he once had Marlowe in the back of his boat.

Which role does Ben Affleck play in Shakespeare in Love?

Ned Alleyn is the vain star actor Will needs, and he only agrees to play the supporting part of Mercutio because Will tells him the play itself is called Mercutio.

In Shakespeare in Love, the bloodthirsty boy who feeds mice to a cat grows up to be which real playwright?

John Webster went on to write The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil, tragedies notorious for their bloodshed, which is why the film's boy insists that plenty of blood is the only writing.

In Shakespeare in Love, why does the Master of the Revels finally shut Henslowe's theatre?

A woman has been acting on stage: a boy who spied on the lovers tips off the Master of the Revels, who storms into rehearsal and unmasks the company's Romeo.

In Shakespeare in Love, why does Viola end up playing Juliet on opening day?

The boy actor's voice breaks just before the performance, and Viola, who already knows the play by heart, steps in to play Juliet opposite Will's Romeo.

In Shakespeare in Love, where does the Queen order Viola to sail with Wessex?

Virginia is an anachronism: the film is set in 1593, and Jamestown, the first lasting English settlement there, was not founded until 1607.

In Shakespeare in Love, the Queen tells Will to write something more cheerful next time, for which occasion?

Twelfth Night is the commission, and the film ends with Will beginning that very play, whose heroine, named after his lost love, survives a shipwreck and disguises herself as a man.

In Shakespeare in Love, Viola's disguised audition speech comes from which play?

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is the comedy she has just seen at court, so while every other hopeful trots out the same Marlowe speech, she wins Will over with his own words.

Who first suggested the idea for Shakespeare in Love to screenwriter Marc Norman?

His son Zach sold him on showing Shakespeare as a young man; Norman could not crack it at first but said he couldn't face going back to his child to admit he had failed.

Which playwright was hired to rewrite Marc Norman's screenplay for Shakespeare in Love?

Tom Stoppard was recruited by the project's first director, a natural choice given that he had made his name with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which retells Hamlet from the wings.

Which star was attached to play Viola in a 1991 version of Shakespeare in Love that collapsed?

Julia Roberts flew home and quit after the search for her leading man went nowhere, by which time the studio had already spent about $6 million on sets and costumes.

The star first cast as Viola in Shakespeare in Love insisted that only which actor could play Will?

Daniel Day-Lewis was sent roses with a card reading "Be my Romeo", her director recalls, but he was not interested, and when she could not talk him round she quit the film.

Which actress turned down Viola in Shakespeare in Love to make small independent films?

Kate Winslet, fresh from Titanic, left her lunch with the director apparently delighted, then phoned a week later to say no.

Shakespeare in Love's Best Picture win controversially defeated which film?

Saving Private Ryan would win a rematch: when the Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of Academy members in 2015, they reversed the result by more than two to one.

In the year of Shakespeare in Love, which actress was Oscar-nominated for playing Elizabeth I in another film?

Cate Blanchett was nominated for Elizabeth and lost, while the actress playing the same queen in Shakespeare in Love won a supporting Oscar that night for a far smaller part.

Which Oscars host opened the night Shakespeare in Love won dressed as Queen Elizabeth I?

Whoopi Goldberg swept on in full royal regalia, a nod to a season with two films about the monarch, and announced to a roar of laughter, "I am the African Queen."

Who beat the director of Shakespeare in Love to that year's Best Director Oscar?

Steven Spielberg took the directing prize even though his film lost the top award, the first time since 1989 that Best Picture and Best Director had gone to different films.

Which studio boss gave himself a producer credit on Shakespeare in Love, prompting tighter rules on who counts as a producer?

Harvey Weinstein was one of five producers who trooped on stage to collect Best Picture, a crowd that pushed the Academy to cap the award at three named producers from then on.

Who composed the Oscar-winning score for Shakespeare in Love?

Stephen Warbeck won Best Original Musical or Comedy Score, a short-lived category created after Disney musicals kept sweeping the music prize; the Academy retired it straight afterwards, so his was the last score to win it.

Who won her first Oscar for Shakespeare in Love's costumes while also nominated that year for Velvet Goldmine?

Sandy Powell was competing against herself that night, and she admits the stage costumes are not strictly period: for a comedy only loosely based in reality, she felt free to take liberties.

Which 1941 comic novel, with a heroine named Viola who poses as a boy actor, anticipated Shakespeare in Love's plot?

No Bed for Bacon was later reissued with an introduction whose writer says he lent the film's co-writer a copy during rewrites, while insisting the plot had already been dreamed up independently.

A bestselling author sued Shakespeare in Love's makers days before the Oscars, claiming what?

Plagiarism, claimed crime novelist Faye Kellerman, whose The Quality of Mercy has Shakespeare romancing a woman disguised as a man; the studio dismissed the timing as a publicity stunt.

Which moated Oxfordshire castle played Viola's family mansion in Shakespeare in Love?

Broughton Castle is the family seat of distant cousins of the film's leading man, so its Shakespeare went courting in a house his own relatives have held since the fifteenth century.

Which part of Shakespeare in Love was reshot several times after test screenings?

The ending went through several versions before the co-writer cracked it: Viola tells Will to turn their parting into his next play, so the goodbye becomes a beginning.

In Shakespeare in Love, a drunken Henslowe lets slip to Viola that Will has what?

He has a wife, back home in Stratford: Henslowe jokes about packing Will off to her, and while the whole tavern roars, Viola slips out in tears.

Which Billy Elliot writer adapted Shakespeare in Love for the West End stage in 2014?

Lee Hall's version won over the Guardian's critic, a declared enemy of films turned into plays, who called this switch fully justified and "a love letter to theatre itself".

In Shakespeare in Love, why does Will dread Wabash the tailor opening the play?

He stutters badly and was cast only because Henslowe owes him money; Will listens in agony from the wings, yet after one stammered word the prologue pours out perfectly.

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

Miramax Films was then owned by Disney, which sold the studio in 2010, yet Disney's theatre arm still co-produced the West End play of the film four years later.

In Shakespeare in Love, Richard Burbage owns which rival playhouse, where Romeo and Juliet is finally staged?

"The Curtain is yours," Burbage tells his rivals once Henslowe's house is shut, vowing to show the world that players are men of parts, and Will himself steps in to play Romeo.

Which British actor plays Richard Burbage in Shakespeare in Love?

Martin Clunes plays the rival manager who storms Henslowe's stage with his men and starts a brawl, then turns up after the closure to offer his enemies his own theatre.

Who plays Viola's Nurse in Shakespeare in Love?

Imelda Staunton plays the real Nurse while her husband, Jim Carter, plays the burly actor cast as the Nurse in Will's play, so the couple share one role, she off the stage and he on it.

Which royal reportedly chose the title Earl of Wessex after seeing the character in Shakespeare in Love?

Prince Edward had been lined up to become Duke of Cambridge, a courtier later said, but liked the sound of the film's title and asked the Queen for it when he married in 1999.

In Shakespeare in Love, Marlowe says he is off to which place, where he is later killed?

Deptford is where the real Marlowe died in 1593, aged 29, stabbed in what the inquest recorded as a quarrel over who should pay the bill.

Which Hertfordshire estate, where Elizabeth I grew up, hosted the fireworks scene in Shakespeare in Love?

Hatfield House is a small anachronism: the mansion seen behind the fireworks was finished around 1611, after Elizabeth I had died, beside the older palace where she spent her childhood.

In Shakespeare in Love, which small part does moneylender Fennyman proudly take in the play?

The Apothecary turns the thug who opened the film torturing a debtor into a stage-struck amateur, fretting over his cap and mumbling his few lines.