FILM · 2017 · UK
The Wife
23 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (23)
- #001
Annie Starke, who plays the young Joan, is Glenn Close's daughter.
- #002
The film has enormous personal resonance for Glenn Close, who recalled her own mother in her eighties telling her that she felt she had never achieved anything in her life.
- #003
Although the film is set in Stockholm, much of it was shot in Glasgow.
- #004
Although the film was shown at film festivals in 2017 (and subsequently bought for distribution), its release was reportedly held back until 2018 to give Glenn Close a better chance at an Oscar nomination.
- #005
The development process for this film took fourteen years.
- #006
The James Joyce quotation cited twice by Joseph Castleman is the ending of the short story "The Dead" from the collection "Dubliners" (1914). There are several parallels between the short story and the film, particularly between the final scene of Joyce's work and the sequence immediately after the party celebrating the Nobel Prize. The bedroom scene in which a spouse reveals certain "secret"s after a party and the snow's "falling softly" upon the living and the dead form a strong parallel….
- #007
Two scenes set on the Concorde supersonic jet were filmed on 28 November 2016 aboard a real retired Concorde at the National Museum of Flight in Scotland.
- #008
Glenn Close approached Gary Oldman to play Joe Castleman, but he was not right for the role.
- #009
Annie Starke receives an "Introducing" credit (usually reserved for an actor's first appearance in a film) even though she had already appeared in three other films: South Pacific (2001), Albert Nobbs (2011) and We Don't Ait Here (2017). South Pacific and Albert Nobbs also featured Starke's mother, Glenn Close.
- #010
It is director Björn Runge's first English-language film.
- #011
Glenn Close and Sir Jonathan Pryce rehearsed around a table for a week before filming began.
- #012
It is adapted from Meg Wolitzer's novel of the same name.
- #013
It was shot over a period of 32 days.
- #014
When the film was first announced, the cast included Frances McDormand, Logan Lerman and Brit Marling. By the time production finally began, however, all three had left and were replaced by Elizabeth McGovern, Max Irons and Annie Starke respectively.
- #015
The name Joan Archer, her short haircut and certain traits of the role point to the French heroine Jeanne D'Arc (also known as Joan of Arc).
- #016
Glenn Close was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress.
- #017
It premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival and was subsequently bought for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics.
- #018
Glenn Close plays the mother of Max Irons, whose father Jeremy Irons played Claus von Bülow, the husband of Close's character in Reversal of Fortune (1990).
- #019
Max Irons and Glenn Close also appeared together in Crooked House (2017).
- #020
Christian Slater and Glenn Close were seen filming at the Springburn Campus of Glasgow Kelvin College.
- #021
Sir Jonathan Pryce and Harry Lloyd play the older and younger versions of the same person. Both actors appeared in Game of Thrones (2011) as completely unrelated characters.
- #022
Harry Lloyd played Will Scarlet in the BBC series Robin Hood. His co-star Christian Slater also played Will Scarlet in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
- #023
Glenn Close and Sir Jonathan Pryce were seen filming a scene in a black limousine on Cadogan Street in Glasgow on 29-30 November 2016.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work