FILM · 1995
The Scarlet Letter
18 archived facts 3 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (18)
- #001
While watching a scene during production, Demi Moore disliked the way her hair looked so much that she insisted the scene be reshot at her own expense.
- #002
Composer Elmer Bernstein reportedly wrote Demi Moore a letter thanking her for rejecting his score for this film, so that it could be used to make a better movie. Moore brought in John Barry to write the final score because she wanted something similar to what he had done on the romantic and highly successful Out of Africa (1985).
- #003
Demi Moore's real-life daughters, Scout and Tallulah, played baby Pearl and young Pearl respectively.
- #004
Sir Gary Oldman considers this film one of his favorite projects.
- #005
Three original scores were written for this film. Those by Ennio Morricone and Elmer Bernstein were rejected. The one used was by John Barry.
- #006
Richard Gere, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson and Sir Anthony Hopkins were considered for the male lead.
- #007
Meg Ryan campaigned heavily for the role of Hester Prynne.
- #008
After poor reviews and a disastrous box office performance in the United States, the film premiered in British cinemas without being shown to critics, a first for a major release in the United Kingdom.
- #009
Swedish director Victor Sjöström adapted Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel in 1926 as a film of the same name starring Lillian Gish, one of the biggest stars of the silent era.
- #010
Sharon Stone was considered for the role of Hester Prynne.
- #011
The cast includes two Oscar winners, Sir Gary Oldman and Robert Duvall, and two Oscar nominees, Demi Moore and Joan Plowright.
- #012
Eric Schweig and Sheldon Peters Wolfchild appeared in Squanto: A Warrior's Tale (1994).
- #013
In addition to this live-action Disney historical drama, Amy Wright and Eric Schweig appeared in Tom and Huck (1995).
- #014
This was Kateri Walker's debut.
- #015
Principal photography took place in 1994; the film was shot in British Columbia on Vancouver Island, at locations around the Campbell River including Beaverlodge Lands (now Rockland Road and North Island College/Timberline Secondary), Lupine Falls and Myra Falls in Strathcona Provincial Park, Little Oyster River and White River. Additional scenes were shot in Nova Scotia, in the towns of Yarmouth and Shelburne and in the village of Saint Alphonse in Clare. In Shelburne, the waterfront area was extensively altered to depict a 17th-century Puritan New England town, and several buildings on Dock Street still retain the grey-toned paint coatings applied during production.
- #016
One of the opening scenes of this live-action film features a Native American funeral (Metacomet succeeds his father Massasoit as the new chief of the Algonquian tribe). Cremation ceremonies were historically very early burial practices. Doctor Francis Julius LeMoyne introduced America's first crematorium in Washington, Pennsylvania, two centuries after the film's setting.
- #017
The film was shot in British Columbia on Vancouver Island, in and around the Campbell River (Beaverlodge Lands, now Rockland Road and North Island College/Timberline Secondary, Lupine Falls and Myra Falls in Strathcona Provincial Park, Little Oyster River and White River), and in 1994 in the Nova Scotia towns of Yarmouth and Shelburne and the small village of Saint Alphonse in Clare. In Shelburne, the waterfront area was extensively altered to resemble a mid-17th-century Puritan New England town. Some buildings on Dock Street retain the grey-toned paint coatings used for the film.
- #018
Gary Oldman's character is younger than Demi Moore's, but in real life he is 4 years older than her.
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