Where to watch Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Trivia & production notes

• Simon Kinberg wrote the Mr. and Mrs. Smith screenplay as a grad student at Columbia University's film program and sold it to Summit Entertainment in 2000.
• Kinberg conceived the story after hearing friends discuss their marriage therapy sessions, which he thought sounded 'aggressive and mercenary' and could work as a template for a relationship within an action film.
• Nicole Kidman was originally set to star opposite Brad Pitt but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with The Stepford Wives, causing Pitt to leave the project as well.
• Aishwarya Rai was approached to play Jane Smith but refused because she was uncomfortable with on-screen kissing.
• Gwen Stefani auditioned for the role of Jane Smith before Angelina Jolie was cast.
• John Leguizamo turned down the role of Eddie because he would have been paid on scale, a decision he later regretted.
• The marriage counselor office scenes were filmed on the first day of shooting, and the filmmakers used the awkwardness between Pitt and Jolie meeting for the first time as actual discomfort for their characters.
• In the pivotal dinner scene where the Smiths discover each other's occupation, director Doug Liman reshot the scene to have Brad Pitt's character swallow meat instead of spit it out into a napkin.
• During a chase scene, Brad Pitt accidentally slipped and fell onto a picket fence instead of running into it as scripted, and that unplanned take was used in the final film.
• Angelina Jolie objected to a scene where Jane would seduce a character for information, viewing it as a female spy stereotype, leading director Doug Liman to rewrite it so she would bludgeon him instead.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005 film), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.