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 Sociedade dos Poetas Mortos (1989) instead.
Bronte's apartment building is The Ayslmere, at 60 West 76th Street in Manhattan.
The movie is actually an Australian film, co-financed with Australian money, but without any Australian cast, and not filmed at all in Australia, but with only an Australian writer-producer-director Peter Weir, and with limited Australian crew, such as cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson, but with the film's post-production though conducted in Australia.