When Florence Pugh was unable to attend the film’s premiere due to other filming commitments, Andrew Garfield turned up with a life-size cardboard cut-out of her to stand in her stead.
The gas-station birth scene was filmed over the course of more than two days. After the scene concluded, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield sat together quietly on set for a further 15 minutes to acknowledge the experience they had shared.
Florence Pugh said that filming for this production was 'one of the highlights of her career.'
For the birth scene, Florence Pugh collaborated with a midwife, Penny Taylor, to ensure she avoided the stereotypical moans and groans of childbirth. She also consulted her mother and her sister, the latter providing audio recordings of her own laboured breathing.
While shooting an intimate scene, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield let the take run on for a while, feeling comfortable with one another and unaware that no one had called "cut". When they eventually realised they had been in the scene far longer than expected, they looked up to discover the DoP and boom operator had already switched off their kit and were turned away to afford the actors privacy. In an interview with Josh Horowitz, Garfield said the humour of that moment "took the curse right off" of the remaining intimate scenes.
Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield are both Academy Award nominees and have each portrayed Marvel characters on screen: Pugh as Yelena Belova and Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man.
During one scene, Florence Pugh's character, Almut, says she is 34 years old, yet when the film was released Pugh was, in fact, only 28.
Director John Crowley also directed Andrew Garfield in his feature film debut, Boy A (2007).
Shaving off her hair for the role was a decision made by Florence Pugh. Director John Crowley said it was one of the very first things she mentioned on meeting him.
For the birth sequence, seven lifelike dolls and an 11-day-old newborn were employed to ensure the depiction was as authentic as possible.
Portions of the film were shot in Surrey, UK, the county where Andrew Garfield spent his childhood.
Although the ice-skating sequence looks as though it’s set in Rome, the production actually used the ice rink at Alexandra Palace in London.
