In his memoirs, writer and director Franco Zeffirelli said that making this movie was the most fun he had in his entire career.
Before playing Katherina, Dame Elizabeth Taylor had never performed William Shakespeare's works (unlike Richard Burton, who was an experienced Shakespearean and already played roles such as Hamlet, Iago, Edgar, Hotspur, and Romeo on-stage), and she was said to be very nervous prior to the beginning of the shoot. As she found her way into the role, and became more confident, she asked writer and director Franco Zeffirelli if she could shoot everything from the first day of shooting again, as she didn't think her performance was up to scratch. Zefferilli assured her it was, but she was persistent, and on the last day of principal photography, the entire first day was shot again.
Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton co-produced this movie, putting $1 million of their own money into the production and waiving their combined $2 million plus salaries, taking a percentage of this movie's gross instead.
The previous movie version of A Mulher Domada (1929) featured Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks who, like Dame Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, were married at the time. Pickford's and Fairbanks' marriage, however, was quickly deteriorating, while Burton's and Taylor's would not end (the first time) for another seven years.
This was the first time that Dame Elizabeth Taylor performed a William Shakespeare work. At first, she said that she felt extremely out of place, as all of the other actors and actresses had been performing Shakespeare on-stage since the age of nineteen. Taylor was an intelligent and determined lady, however, and picked the language up rather quickly. She only inquired of one sentence to Richard Burton: how to say "whom doth thou lovest best?" as she felt as though she "had toffee in her mouth" saying this.