FILM · 2003
Down with Love
24 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (24)
- #001
The extra scene at the end, in which Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger sing a duet, was shot at the insistence of Zellweger and McGregor. Since both had previously appeared in musicals (McGregor in Moulin Rouge! (2001) and Zellweger in Chicago (2002)), they said it would have been a sin not to do it.
- #002
The split-screen telephone conversation scenes are a direct homage to the screwball comedies of the 1950s and 1960s, particularly Pillow Talk (1959).
- #003
One of the background scenes during the flirtation montage shows a man playing bongo drums. This image is taken from the scene in Pillow Talk (1959) where Doris Day's and Rock Hudson's characters first meet.
- #004
Everything the characters wore from head to toe was made specifically for them.
- #005
To create a vivid, stylized look, cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth digitally timed the film's color to simulate the three-strip Technicolor look.
- #006
Barbara Novak's (Renée Zellweger) long monologue, which runs three minutes and two seconds in a single uninterrupted take, took only six takes to get right.
- #007
Vikki Hiller (Sarah Paulson) suspects that Peter MacMannus (David Hyde Pierce) is gay. Although that is not the case in the film, within just a few years both Pierce and Paulson came out as gay.
- #008
Cartoon animator and MAD Magazine artist Richard Williams created a fake MAD Magazine cover showing "Alfred E. Neuman" as Barbara holds her book. MAD Magazine interpreted the cameo in the film as a sure kiss of death for a movie.
- #009
Tony Randall (Theodore Banner) appeared alongside Rock Hudson and Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). In all three films Randall played Hudson's employer and hapless assistant (the role played by David Hyde Pierce in this film).
- #010
The front cover of the MAD Magazine was fake, but the back cover belonged to a real issue from the late 1960s.
- #011
Renée Zellweger's costumes were created by the Montreal-based clothing company Le Chateau.
- #012
Fifty-five sets were built on four soundstages.
- #013
Director Peyton Reed cites the popular auction site eBay as a good source for finding the period costumes and accessories used in this film.
- #014
This remains the only film directed by Peyton Reed that did not reach number one in its opening weekend.
- #015
There are several pieces of dialogue referring to "Nazi rocket scientists." This is a nod to Operation Paperclip, the post-World War II U.S. government project that relocated the Nazi scientists who developed the V-2 rockets that bombed London, England, to the United States to work on the beginnings of the U.S. space program, largely in Huntsville, Alabama. The most famous of these scientists, Wernher Von Braun, had been technical director of a Nazi rocket factory that used slave labor from the nearby Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Von Braun played a key role in creating the Redstone missile, the basis of the U.S. missile program, and the Saturn V rocket, the basis of the Apollo program that sent American astronauts to the moon.
- #016
This was Florence Stanley's (the Dry Cleaner's Wife) last theatrical film.
- #017
On August 4, 2003, while filming Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), Ewan McGregor attended the film's Australian gala premiere in the country. George Lucas also attended the event.
- #018
Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor also appeared together in Miss Potter (2006), where they again played each other's love interests.
- #019
At the end of the film, Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor perform a duet.
- #020
This was director Peyton Reed's first experience with the Panavision anamorphic format. He would revisit the format later when he directed two episodes of the second season of The Mandalorian (2019) (Chapter 10: The Passenger (2020) and Chapter 16: The Rescue (2020)).
- #021
Judy Greer was considered to play Barbara Novak.
- #022
Elizabeth Mitchell was considered to play Barbara Novak.
- #023
Tia Carrere was considered to play Barbara Novak.
- #024
David Hyde Pierce's character is named Peter McMannus, the same name as the production accountant (Peter McManus) credited in the film's end title sequence.
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