Though she was in her early sixties, Judi Dench cites this as the movie that launched her film career.
Finty Williams is the daughter of Judi Dench. Princess Helena was one of Queen Victoria's five daughters.
This is one of two movies in consecutive years in which Judi Dench played a historic English Queen. She played Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1998). The same actresses played the Queen's Ladies in Waiting in both movies.
During filming, Gerard Butler saved a young boy from drowning in the river Tay. The Royal Humane Society gave him a "Certificate Of Bravery."
Gerard Butler became hypothermic after filming the scene in which he and Sir Billy Connolly run naked into the ocean.