Noting Hilas (1999) Online

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Julia Roberts	-	Anna Scott
	Hugh Grant	-	William Thacker
	Richard McCabe	-	Tony
	Rhys Ifans	-	Spike
	James Dreyfus	-	Martin
	Dylan Moran	-	Rufus the Thief
	Roger Frost	-	Annoying Customer
	Henry Goodman	-	Ritz Concierge
	Julian Rhind-Tutt	-	'Time Out' Journalist
	Lorelei King	-	Anna's Publicist
	John Shrapnel	-	PR Chief
	Clarke Peters	-	'Helix' Lead Actor
	Arturo Venegas	-	Foreign Actor
	Yolanda Vazquez	-	Interpreter
	Mischa Barton	-	12-year-old Actress

During the birthday dinner scene, Anna Scott is asked how much she made on her last film, and her reply is $15 million. This is the amount she (Julia Roberts) was paid for her role in Ноттинг Хилл (1999).

The shots in the lobby of the Ritz were actually filmed at the Ritz, but between 2AM and 4AM so as not to be affected by the real guests.

The house with the blue door where William lives is real; it once belonged to Notting Hill screenwriter Richard Curtis.

The bit where Anna Scott tells off the diners in the restaurant was not in the script.

The long shot where William Thacker walks through Notting Hill during summer, fall, winter, and spring was actually four different shots, all filmed the same day. Computer technology morphed Hugh Grant seamlessly from one shot to the next.

Many of the shots of Julia Roberts used in the opening credits came from the show Entertainment Tonight (1981).

The park bench used in this film now 'lives' in Queens Gardens in East Perth, Western Australia. A local Perth resident anonymously donated the bench to the City of Perth and it now *really does* live in a beautiful garden that is locked at night.

Thacker's bookshop was actually an antiques shop in real life, next to a butcher. One or two doors down from the butchers is an office for Richard Curtis's production company. Shortly after becoming a superstar, singer Adele bought the flat directly above the 'bookshop' but only lived there for a short time before moving back to live with her mother Penny.

The book William reads as he sits on the park bench at the end of the movie is "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" by Louis de Bernières. Выбор капитана Корелли (2001) was to be director Roger Michell's next film after Ноттинг Хилл (1999), but he became seriously ill and had to be replaced by John Madden.

The rooftop scene in which William and Anna practice her lines for the submarine movie was shortened and edited to remove some swearing from Anna that would have precluded a PG 13 rating. The extended scene is on the DVD.

Julia Roberts was the "one and only" choice for the role, although Roger Michell and Duncan Kenworthy did not expect her to accept. Her agent told her it was "the best romantic comedy she had ever read". Roberts said that after reading the script she decided she was "going to have to do this".

Throughout the movie, Anna never says William's name, either in conversation, or when addressing him directly (Flopsy/Floppy doesn't count.)

When Bernie, unaware of Anna's level of fame, asks her how much she made in her last movie, Julia Roberts ad libbed the number. Initially in the script and during rehearsals, she said $10 million. In future takes, she changed it to $12 million. In the third take of her close-up, she said $15 million. Hugh Bonneville later asked Roberts why she kept changing the figure. She replied, "I'm kind of tired of low-balling!'

The house with the blue door used in the movie was sold the year following the release of the movie. The original blue door was removed and auctioned. The replacement door was painted black so that no one would recognize it. Soon however, someone later spray painted on the wall next to the door, "This is the Hollywood door." A different house was used when Thacker and Anna are practicing her lines on the roof.

The real Travel Bookshop had a sign in its window saying "We're almost famous." It would sell non-travel books when it fitted in with a theme. For example, selling Martin Amis's "London Fields" when doing a Notting Hill theme.

Julia Roberts took issue with paraphrasing Rita Hayworth's famous line, "They go to bed with Gilda, they wake up with me." "I hate to say anything negative about what Richard wrote, because he's a genius, but I hated saying that line," Roberts said. "To me, it was nails on a chalkboard. I don't really believe any of that."

Director Roger Michell and writer Richard Curtis both said Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts were the first choices for the roles of William Thacker and Anna Scott.

The casting of Hugh Bonneville, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee, Emma Chambers, and Rhys Ifans as Will's friends was "rather like assembling a family". Roger Michell explained that "When you are casting a cabal of friends, you have to cast a balance of qualities, of types and of sensibilities. They were the jigsaw that had to be put together all in one go, and I think we've got a very good variety of people who can realistically still live in the same world."

Richard Curtis developed the film from thoughts while lying awake at night. He described the starting point as "the idea of a very normal person going out with an unbelievably famous person and how that impinges on their lives".

When writer Richard Curtis viewed the film for the first time, he found it to be too similar to his previous film, Четыре свадьбы и oдни похороны (1994).

The final cut was 3.5 hours long, 90 minutes edited out for release.

Omid Djalili plays the Cashier at the Coffee Shop (uncredited) - he was filming Мумия (1999) at the same time at the same studios so was conscripted to fill in the part, very conveniently. (Blink and you could miss him serving Hugh Grant the orange juice that he soon spills on Julia Roberts.)

The location manager Sue Quinn, described finding locations and getting permission to film as "a mammoth task". Quinn and the rest of her team had to write to thousands of people in the area, promising to donate to each person's favourite charity, resulting in 200 charities receiving money.

The blue door was auctioned at Christie's Film and Entertainment sale in London. Soon after, graffiti appeared on a wall close by saying something along the lines of "R.I.P. blue door" next to the new door. The original blue door is now on a property in Hope Cove, Devon.

The decision to cast Hugh Grant was unanimous, as he and Richard Curtis had a "writer/actor marriage made in heaven". Roger Michell said that "Hugh does Richard better than anyone else, and Richard writes Hugh better than anyone else", and that Grant is "one of the only actors who can speak Richard's lines perfectly".

According to Richard Curtis, Anna Scott was a hybrid of Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn.

The film features the 1950 Marc Chagall painting La Mariée. Anna sees a print of the painting in William's home and later gives him what is presumably the original. Michell said in Entertainment Weekly that the painting was chosen because Curtis was a fan of Chagall's work and because La Mariée "depicts a yearning for something that's lost." The producers had a reproduction made for the film, but had to get permission from the owner as well as clearance from the Design and Artists Copyright Society. Finally, according to Duncan Kenworthy, "we had to agree to destroy it. They were concerned that if our fake was too good, it might float around the market and create problems." The article also noted that "some experts say the real canvas could be worth between US$500,000 and US$1 million."

The fictional Anna Scott/Matthew Modine film William and Spike are watching, described by Spike as a classic, is called Gramercy Park, after the in style New York City neighborhood.

Despite Thacker's protestations, it seems that his store does *not* just sell travel books. On the shelf in the background (visible clearly in a later scene where he is receiving the gift from Anna), there is a copy of Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels by Roger Sabin. (It's a big orange hardcover.)

There is a chain on the outside of Spike's door, so he could conceivably be locked in rather than having it set to lock anyone out.

Hugh Grant was critical about kissing Julia Roberts because of her large mouth. He said she had "such a large mouth" and "was aware of a faint echo as I was kissing her." Roberts has since forgiven Grant for the comments, and has said she is willing to work with him again.

Richard Curtis previously dated Anne Jenkin, before her marriage to Bernard Jenkin MP. He routinely includes references to a horrible person "Bernard" in his scripts. In this movie, William introduces himself as Bernard to Jeff King when he realises he almost helped Anna cheat on him.

The Marc Chagall painting featured in the movie, and eventually given to William by Anna, is entitled "La Mariée" ("The Bride") and depicts a young bride (and a violin-playing goat).

Hugh Grant walked around the set complaining that Julia Roberts' voice was "significantly lower" than his. At first, Grant's voice was higher than usual because he was nervous.

Richard Curtis chose Notting Hill as he lived there and knew the area, saying "Notting Hill is a melting pot and the perfect place to set a film". This left the producers to film in a heavily populated area. Duncan Kenworthy noted "Early on, we toyed with the idea of building a huge exterior set. That way we would have more control, because we were worried about having Roberts and Grant on public streets where we could get thousands of onlookers." In the end they decided to film in the streets.

According to Richard Curtis, while going through candidates to play Julia Roberts' husband, she pointed out that they were all twenty years her senior. This made him feel ashamed, as the reverse could never be true.

Stuart Craig, the production designer, was pleased to do a contemporary film, saying "we're dealing with streets with thousands of people, market traders, shop owners and residents which makes it really complex".

The film features the book Istanbul: The Imperial City (1996) by John Freely. William recommends this book to Anna, commenting the author has at least been to Istanbul. In reality, Freely teaches at Bogazici University in Istanbul, and is the author of nine books about the city.

During the opening scene, where William spills coffee on himself it wasn't real coffee but Coca Cola.

Mike Newell was approached but rejected it to work on Управляя полётами (1999). He said that in commercial terms he had made the wrong decision, but did not regret it. He had previously directed Четыре свадьбы и oдни похороны (1994), which was also written by Richard Curtis and also starred Hugh Grant.

One of the final scenes takes place at a film premiere, which presented difficulties. Roger Michell wanted to film Leicester Square but was declined. Police had found fans at a Leonardo DiCaprio premiere problematic and were concerned the same might occur at the staged premiere. Through a health and safety act, the production received permission to film and constructed the scene in 24 hours.

Alec Baldwin has an uncredited role as Jeff King, Anna Scott's American boyfriend.

Has a similar theme to Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), in that Hugh Grant's character falls in love with an American woman who he sees periodically when she visits the UK, and the romance takes place over a timespan of several months.

Roger Michell was worried "that Hugh and Julia were going to turn up on the first day of shooting on Portobello Road, and there would be gridlock and we would be surrounded by thousands of people and paparazzi photographers who would prevent us from shooting". The location team, and security personnel prevented this, as well as preventing problems the presence of a film crew may have caused the residents of Notting Hill, who Michell believes were "genuinely excited" about the film.

Anthony Minghella was originally meant to direct.

Most of Ann Beach's part was deleted.

Humorously enough, "Rufus the Thief," who attempts to steal a book from William's book shop early in the movie, is played by Dylan Moran, who shortly thereafter starred in Книжный магазин Блэка (2000) - a comedy series centered on a book shop.

In a strange coincidence, William says "Meat Loaf has a very nice pair" when talking about why men are fascinated with breasts. This was actually before Бойцовский клуб (1999), which was released four months after Notting Hill and in which Meat Loaf's "very nice pair" features prominently (although to be fair, they were part of his role's fat suit).

The movie was remade in Hindi (Bollywood) as Предчувствие любви (2006).

Before Anna and William meet in the book store again, a man asks William if he has the new John Grisham thriller. Julia Roberts starred in Дело о пеликанах (1993), the novel of which was written by Grisham.

Comedian Sally Phillips had a small role as a dog walker, but it was cut from the final film.

In the first scene inside the house in Notting Hill Hugh Grant opens the cupboard. On the shelf there is a can that says "Bean", a reference to Richard Curtis' other work.

David Threlfall was seen for a part for this project

All the lead characters except Anna and William are not quite 'normal' and all of them are under-achievers in any specific way, even the girls who William is set up with were not quite so normal.

Interior scenes were the last to be filmed, at Shepperton Studios.

Richard Curtis repeatedly listened to "Downtown Train" by Everything But the Girl while writing the script.

There is some stained glass in the film which features the likeness of MTV characters, Beavis and Butt-Head.

The newspaper that William is reading while Anna mentions the size of his feet is the 15th June 1998 edition of The Times featuring an article on racing driver Nigel Mansell by Kevin Eason.

While they are racing to get to The Savoy, after Spike stops traffic, Honey is seen waving out of the driver side back window and when they get to The Savoy William jumps out of the car from the same seat she would have been sitting in.

Art Malik was offered a major role.

As he explains in the published screenplay, in Richard Curtis's original conception of the story, Honey (Emma Chambers) was a worker in the record store across from his bookshop and Anna's romantic rival for his affections. The film would have ended with William choosing her over the fantasy that Anna represented. Curtis decided that he could not just dismiss Anna, however, and so he made Honey into William's sister instead.

The Henry James movie in which Anna stars is based on James' novella "The Siege of London", as indicated in the paper Max tosses to William in Tony's now defunct restaurant. Anna plays Mrs. Headway, much married and divorced, bold and outspoken, from the "Wild West" in America.

In the final shot of the movie, where they have found their own bench on which to grow old together, Anna is clearly pregnant.