Far from the Madding Crowd

The song sung by Carey Mulligan and Michael Sheen in the film is "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme," a traditional English and Irish folk song.

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Carey Mulligan suggested Matthias Schoenaerts for the role of Gabriel Oak after seeing him in Rust and Bone (2012). Mulligan told Total Film: "The moment I saw Rust and Bone I called [director] Thomas Vinterberg and said, 'This is the man I want!' He's magnificent; one of those effortlessly masculine actors."

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The film's health and safety team was worried about the actors working with sheep, but it allowed Carey Mulligan to ride a horse, and she suffered a concussion after getting off the horse. She and Matthias Schoenaerts were shooting the film's final scene when she turned a corner quickly, fell and landed on top of her head. Ten minutes later they were shooting the big revelation scene and she simply dropped to her knees. Schoenaerts thought she was acting and carried on, then she collapsed. Mulligan said she was genuinely concussed for about six weeks during the shoot and that there are parts she does not remember.

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In the scene where Bathsheba tries to impress Gabriel and his friends by joining them in the sheep bath, the animals had little Hollywood glamour. Carey Mulligan said: "It was a lot of fun, even if it was a bit disgusting by the end of the day. The sheep were doing their business in the water. The boys were moaning the whole time, but they were wearing wetsuits under their costumes. I wasn't wearing a wetsuit, so I was swimming in sheep shit all day, which was a joy."

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Thomas Vinterberg claims that when he first read the script, by page ten he knew Carey Mulligan was his only choice for Bathsheba Everdene.

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Gabriel and Bathsheba's wedding was filmed but cut. The scene can be seen on the DVD.

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The cast did a kind of farming boot camp two weeks before shooting. Matthias Schoenaerts learned everything there was to know about sheep: how to shear them, how to relieve their bloat, how to wash them and all the other aspects of farm life.

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Thomas Vinterberg explained that he tried to change the ending, but changed his mind after the producer told him he had to follow the novel's ending (with Gabriel and Bathsheba together) because audiences would know it.

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The film was shot in 53 days.

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Matthias Schoenaerts is the only non-British member of the cast.

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This is the fifth film adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel. The first film version was the silent film Far from the Madding Crowd (1915), released exactly 100 years before this updated version. (There is also a 1909 film of the same name, but it is not based on Hardy's work; it is a Thomas A. Edison comedy.)

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Jessica Barden, who plays Liddy in this film, played Jody in Tamara Drewe (2010), a modern adaptation of the same story.

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Matthias Schoenaerts dubbed himself in the French version of the film.

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About two-thirds of the film was shot outdoors.

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The producers asked the army at Lulworth in Dorset to stop firing while scenes near Lulworth Cove were being shot.

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Matthew Goode was offered the role of Sergeant Troy.

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One of the melodies played at Bathsheba and Troy's wedding is the same melody heard in Roman Polanski's Tess (1979), after another Thomas Hardy novel.

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It is Thomas Vinterberg's first period work.

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Thomas Vinterberg and Matthias Schoenaerts would later work together again on The Command (2018).

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Far from the Madding Crowd was Thomas Vinterberg's first English-language film since Dear Wendy (2005).

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This is the third collaboration between director Thomas Vinterberg and cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen; the previous two were Submarino (2010) and The Hunt (2012).

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