FILM · 1992 · UK
Damage
22 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (22)
- #001
Rupert Graves, who plays Martyn Fleming, the son of Dr. Stephen Fleming (Jeremy Irons), is only five years younger than Miranda Richardson and fifteen years younger than Irons, who plays both his parents.
- #002
French actress Isabelle Adjani was originally set to take the role of Anna Barton but turned down the offer due to a scheduling conflict. American actress Jodie Foster was offered the role, but Foster declined because she did not think she was right for it. The character was ultimately cast with French actress Juliette Binoche.
- #003
The film was made and released only about a year after Josephine Hart's source novel of the same name, which was first published in 1991.
- #004
Stephen Fleming's (Jeremy Irons) political party was the Conservative Party, also known as the Tories. Fleming was the Environment Minister.
- #005
It was the last feature-length cinema film produced by French writer-director-producer Louis Malle.
- #006
According to Louis Malle, the film is not a satire of the ruling class but an observation of their customs.
- #007
Miranda Richardson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role, but lost to Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny (1992). One of the other nominees in that category that year was Joan Plowright for Enchanted April (1991), in which Richardson also appeared.
- #008
It is the first of two collaborations to date (as of June 2015) between French actresses Leslie Caron and Juliette Binoche, who would work together about eight years later on Lasse Hallström's Chocolat (2000).
- #009
Dr. Stephen Fleming was said to be approaching fifty. However, Jeremy Irons was forty-four years old when Damage (1992) was released.
- #010
This British-French co-production was French director Louis Malle's last British and last French film; Malle's final film, Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), was a New York American production made in the United States.
- #011
This British-French co-production featured two famous French actresses, Leslie Caron and Juliette Binoche, among a predominantly British cast.
- #012
(Cameo): David Thewlis: the detective who questions Stephen about his secret affair with Anna near the end of the film.
- #013
It is one of the many feature-length films directed by French director Louis Malle that deal with controversial subjects.
- #014
It is the penultimate cinema film directed by French director Louis Malle, followed by Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), which was made and released a few years after Malle's last feature film, Damage (1992).
- #015
The film's cast includes three Oscar winners: Jeremy Irons, Juliette Binoche and Julian Fellowes; and three Oscar nominees: Ian Bannen, Leslie Caron and Miranda Richardson.
- #016
Screenwriter David Hare had dealt with similar thematic subjects in Paris by Night (1988), which he wrote and directed for the screen. In that film, Charlotte Rampling also plays a politician who is having an affair. A quote from Time Out offers a witty line: "The sex scenes make you think about acting. The tedium is perhaps the point: Malle has been mapping this territory since the late '50s, and co-screenwriter David Hare said it all before in Paris by Night."
- #017
Three of the film's stars worked with David Cronenberg at various times. Jeremy Irons was in Dead Ringers and M. Butterfly, Juliette Binoche in Cosmopolis, and Miranda Richardson in Spider.
- #018
The country estate belonging to Stephen's father-in-law (Ian Bannen), Edward Lloyd, was named "Hartley."
- #019
Miranda Richardson was awarded Best Supporting Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle for her performances in three films: Damage, Enchanted April (1991) and The Crying Game (1992). Richardson was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Damage (1992); that same year Joan Plowright was also nominated for Enchanted April (1991). Jaye Davidson, who plays a woman in part, was likewise nominated that year in the Best Supporting Actor Oscar category for The Crying Game (1992). None of them won the Oscar in the supporting role categories.
- #020
A 1997 issue of Empire featured the following: "The most talked-about sex scene… Damage. The film is a turkey but nobody could stop talking about what a profound turning point it was to see Jeremy Irons having sex. Poor Jeremy. Rupert Graves (phwoar!) walks into a room to catch his fiancée (Juliette Binoche) on top of his randy skinny father (Irons). He comes back out of the room with such force that he topples backwards over the banister and throws off his clogs. Needless to say Juliette and Jeremy never have sex again, a fact that pleases most people."
- #021
Peter Stormare plays a character named Peter Wetzler, which shares his own first name, while Ray Gravell played a character named Raymond, an extension of his own name.
- #022
According to the review of Damage by Richard Luck, the film was partly financed by the National Lottery.
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