The costuming and sets were designed with as little color as possible to give the illusion of a black and white film. This was to make up for the fact that the film wasn't allowed to be filmed in black and white as originally planned.
Despite the fact that Charles Chaplin actually had bright blue eyes, Eddie Izzard wore dark contact lenses to keep with the public perception of Chaplin as dark featured. Most have only seen or remember him in black and white films, and assume he had dark eyes.
While shooting the exteriors in Greece the crew were cursed with bad weather. It went from sunny to rainy and back again at the drop of a hat which caused major problems with continuity. The whole crew decided that it was the ghost of William Randolph Hearst who was at the bottom of it, unhappy that they were making such a film about him. On set, each time the weather changed for the worst someone would shout "That's Hearst!!".
Joanna Lumley's bits of narration at the beginning and end of the film were recorded in a single take.
The characters of Didi and Celia appear to be composites of several popular film actresses of the day who were on board William Randolph Hearst's yacht during the real incident, in addition to Marion Davies and Margaret Livingston. They were Seena Owen, Jacqueline Logan, Aileen Pringle and Julanne Johnston.