Star Andie MacDowell was totally surprised when Peter Weir asked her to gain weight. She had always been asked to do the opposite.
The production of the picture was shelved for a year due to the filming schedule of French star Gérard Depardieu who was not available for around twelve months. In the meantime, director Peter Weir went and made Dead Poets Society (1989) instead.
Bronte's apartment building is The Ayslmere, at 60 West 76th Street in Manhattan.
When this film was first conceptualized by writer-director Peter Weir, he wanted French actor Gérard Depardieu for the male lead role, after seeing his performance in Polish director Andrzej Wajda's earlier historical drama Danton (1983), which had been made and released about seven years earlier.