Trivia: Filming was delayed for several weeks after Anthony Hopkins fell from a horse and broke his arm. In several scenes, his armor is concealing a plaster cast. Director Anthony Harvey was stricken with hepatitis, causing further delays in post-production editing. Only Katharine Hepburn's intervention stopped the film's Hollywood backers from handing editing duties off to someone else and from possibly shelving the entire project. (From the director's DVD commentary.)
Trivia: Katharine Hepburn, who played Queen Eleanor, actually is descended from Eleanor of Aquitaine along numerous lines, from both Eleanor's marriage to Louis VII of France, and her marriage to Henry II, of England.
Trivia: Shooting on the dungeon scene was held up for several hours due to a missing make-up man. The director and Katharine Hepburn, who needed her make-up done, trudged all over the castle grounds searching, only to find the man playing poker with Peter O'Toole and several crew members. Furious, Hepburn smacked O'Toole in the head with a heavy handbag. In retribution, O'Toole noisily interrupted her next scene. Moaning and groaning, he burst through a dungeon door swathed head-to-toe in bloody white bandages, sending the entire cast and crew into gales of laughter. (From the director's DVD commentary.)
