Trivia for
Becoming Jane (2007) More at IMDbPro »

• Kate Winslet, Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley were also considered for the role of Jane Austen.
  
  
• Anne Hathaway learned to play the piano and worked with a dialect coach for the preparation of this movie.
  
  
• Up to 300 extras were used in the ballroom scene which was visited by John O'Donoghue, the Irish Minister for the Arts.
  
  
• The final film role of Ian Richardson.
  
  
• The yellow muslin gown with white ruffle at the neckline that Jessica Ashworth as Lucy Lefroy wears is the same gown worn by Carey Mulligan as Kitty Bennet in Pride & Prejudice (2005). Mulligan wears it in the scene at Longbourn when Mr. Gardiner's letter arrives.
  
  
• The pink patterned muslin gown Anna Maxwell Martin (Cassandra Austen) wears during the engagement party scene is the same gown worn by Carey Mulligan (Kitty Bennet) in Pride & Prejudice (2005). Mulligan wears it during the scene in which the younger Bennet sisters visit Netherfield Hall to check on the progress of Jane Bennet, who is ill.
  
  
• The white muslin frock with red patterned overdress worn by Eleanor Methven as Mrs. Lefroy is the same one Brenda Blethyn as Mrs. Bennet wears in Pride & Prejudice (2005) in the Meryton scene when the Bennets learn that Mr. Bingley has returned to Netherfield Hall.
  
  
• James McAvoy had to wear three inch lifts throughout the filming of the entire movie because at 5'7 he is shorter than his 5'8 leading lady Anne Hathaway.
  
  
• The events in the film are roughly set in 1795.
  
  
• During the shooting of the opening scene, the piano that Jane plays was not working. The sound was later matched to Anne Hathaway's fingering.
  
  
• The house used to portray the Austen home dates from 1747.
  
  
• Cast member Maggie Smith is a patron of the Jane Austen Society.
  
  
• Shooting in Ireland during the spring and summer is always tricky since the weather can change within minutes. The cricket scene for this film was especially hard to shoot and edit for this reason; the light was different in nearly every shot.
  
  
• Two shots from the beginning of the film, used to set up the town, were done in England. Every other foot of film was shot in Ireland.
  
  
• The blue and white striped gown Lucy Cohu (Eliza De Feuillide) wears was previously worn in Marie Antoinette (2006) by Mary Nighy (Princesse Lamballe).
  
  
• The green and beige patterned waistcoat James McAvoy (Tom Lefroy) wears to Lady Gresham's ball is the same costume previously worn by Benjamin Whitrow (Mr. Bennet) at Longbourn in "Pride and Prejudice" (1995) and by Mark Foxsmith in "The Regency House Party" (2004). The costume is also worn by Hugh Laurie (Mr. Palmer) at the London ball in Sense and Sensibility (1995).
  
  
• We see Jane starting to write a novel called 'First Impression'. This is the first draft of what would become 'Pride and Prejudice'.
  
  
• The floppy mesh bonnet worn to church by an extra is the same one worn by Rosamund Pike (Jane Bennet) in Meryton when she learns Mr. Bingley has returned to Netherfield in Pride & Prejudice (2005), by Catherine Walker (Eleanor Tilney) in the garden with Catherine in Northanger Abbey (2007) (TV), and by Emily Blunt (Victoria) in The Young Victoria (2009).
  
  
• The white overdress with pink and green stripes Jessica Ashworth (Lucy Lefroy) wears to the Laverton Fair is the same costume worn by Carey Mulligan (Isabella Thorpe) when she first meets Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey (2007) (TV).
  
  

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