Marlon Brando described Anna Magnani as being equally fiery and passionate off screen. He claimed she made a pass at him in a hotel before filming began.
Marlon Brando became the first actor to be paid $1 million for a single film, when he signed on to appear in this screen-adaptation of Tennessee Williams' "Orpheus Descending." Nearing the end of her contract with MGM, Elizabeth Taylor had earlier signed a $1-million contract with 20th Century-Fox to appear in Cleopatra (1963), breaking that salary threshold in Hollywood.
This was the first mainstream American film to feature the word "sonofabitch." This occurs at 56 minutes into the movie, with Joanne Woodward using the now-ubiquitous word.
Director Sidney Lumet always liked to rehearse his movies for at least two weeks before he would begin to film them. However, there was no rehearsal period for this film because Anna Magnani was unwilling to rehearse, since she did not like to. Therefore, after only a three-day rehearsal period, the filming of the movie began.
Anna Magnani was hot to sleep with co-star Marlon Brando, but he did not find her attractive. The tension that was created between the two co-stars did not help the film but subtracted from it, as her failure at conquest made Magnani unhappy. Tennessee Williams was angry with Brando, convinced that he was deliberately slurring his dialogue to punish Magnani, who did not speak English. Magnani was playing the role phonetically and had trouble picking up her cues from Brando. Additionally, editing was difficult due to her uneven English dialog and some scenes had to be dubbed, either partially or completely.
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