The photo of Will reflected in the mirror during his depression was actually taken while Hugh Grant was on a break. The directors noticed he was doing this and looked sad from behind, so they shot the film without his knowledge.
Brad Pitt turned down the lead role of Will Freeman on the grounds that it was illogical for such an attractive man to pretend to be a single father in order to meet women. He still appears in the film (in a way); he is on the cover of the issue of "Esquire" that Will reads in his home.
The opening clip of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (1998) was created specifically for the film. It was shot on 10 September 2001, the night Major Charles Ingram's legendary fraudulent £1 million win was recorded.
Early on, Marcus says that if he were in Haley Joel Osment's place, he could look after his mother (Toni Collette). Toni Collette played Haley Joel Osment's mother in The Sixth Sense (1999).
When Will is hit with an apple while singing on stage with Marcus, the apple was actually a sponge ball bought from a local sports shop and painted to look like an apple.
Like Nick Hornby's other film adaptation, High Fidelity (2000), the first step for this film was to move it to the US with George Clooney in the lead role.
The spot where Marcus accidentally kills the duck along with the bread is where the famous Peter Pan statue stands in Kensington Gardens. Peter Pan, of course, is the boy who never grows up.
Some questioned the choice of an American to direct such a very English subject, but Chris Weitz is not only a fan of the English, he actually studied at Cambridge University.
Will has absolute freedom to do what he wants. He is also free of marital ties and the responsibility of children. So the name 'Freeman' is especially fitting.
