A "Save the Rose Theatre" press day to support Sam Wanamaker, was held near the end of filming. Two of the actors in attendance performed speeches. Gérard Depardieu not only dubbed the title role in French, circa May 1989, but also helped to secure distribution for this movie in France. In thanks, Sir Kenneth Branagh cast him in Hamlet (1996) in the small role of Reynaldo (Polonius' servant). Branagh and Depardieu have also shared the role of Cyrano de Bergerac.
As Sir John Falstaff is dying, the screenplay interpolates a flashback scene from (and a paraphrase of) Act 2, scene 4 of William Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 1. In it, Falstaff jokingly tells Prince Hal (later to become King Henry V) that when he is King, he may stop socializing with all their other friends, but he shouldn't banish Falstaff himself from his company: "banish plump Jack, and banish all the world." In the play Hal responds aloud, but in the film he responds only internally, through voice-overs.
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