Where to watch The King's Speech (2010)

Trivia & production notes

• Screenwriter David Seidler, who stammered as a child, abandoned the project for decades after King George VI's widow asked him not to proceed during her lifetime due to painful memories of the era.
• Geoffrey Rush's manager sent a four-page email criticizing the producers for hand-delivering the script to his house without going through proper channels, but the message ended by inviting them to discuss the project further.
• Tom Hooper learned about the project through his mother, who attended a small theatre reading in north London and told him she had found his next project.
• The production discovered Lionel Logue's original diary of treatment notes just nine weeks before filming began, prompting the team to rewrite parts of the script to align with the historical record.
• Director Tom Hooper changed the film's ending from a Hollywood version to one where the King's speech shows him managing his stammer rather than overcoming it perfectly, matching what the real historical speech contained.
• Paul Bettany and Hugh Grant were both approached to play King George VI before Colin Firth was cast in the role.
• Filming lasted just 39 days total, with most of it compressed into the three weeks before Christmas to accommodate Geoffrey Rush's theatre commitment in January.
• Helena Bonham Carter's scenes were filmed only on weekends because she was simultaneously working on a Harry Potter film during the week.
• The crew recreated a 1930s London street at the Pullens buildings in Southwark, adding period advertisements for products like Bovril and deliberately soiling the area to capture the depression-era appearance.
• Seidler returned to writing the project in 2005 after recovering from cancer, inspired by a chance encounter with an uncle whom Logue had treated for his stammer.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article The King's Speech, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.