The cast includes three Oscar winners: William Hurt, Julian Fellowes, and Anna Paquin; and one Oscar nominee: Dame Joan Plowright.
The location for Thornfield Hall is Haddon Hall, Bakewell, Derbyshire, England. Haddon Hall had been used once before, as the castle for The Princess Bride (1987).
Billie Whitelaw remarked in her memoirs that, while she had greatly liked both William Hurt and Franco Zeffirelli, the two men had hated each other and had quarreled throughout the filming.
Jeremy Irons was originally cast as Rochester. When director Franco Zeffirelli's secondment as an Italian senator necessitated a delay in the film's shooting from the spring of 1994 to the autumn, Irons gave up the part rather than cancel the family vacation he had arranged.
After being turned down by Elizabeth Hurley, the role of Blanche Ingram was given to a "no-name" actress. However when Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein bought into the film his first "suggestion" was that supermodel Elle Macpherson be cast as Blanche. William Hurt reportedly was incensed by Weinstein's interference and, blaming director Franco Zeffirelli for kowtowing, barely spoke to the last-named during the film's shoot. Whether or not on account of the casting of Blanche Ingram, that Zeffirelli and Hurt had an acrimonious working relationship is well substantiated as fact.
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