Trivia / A Knight's Tale

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: When William notices the Nike logo on the suit of armor that Kate gives him, Kate says it's in case some other knight should admire her handiwork. By the directors' own admission, as stated in their commentary on the DVD, they had no idea at the time that one of the founders of Nike was, in fact, a Knight
• Acting for Two: Alan Tudyk dubbed one of the blacksmiths whom refuses to repair Will's armor.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Kate was not written to be Scottish, and Laura Fraser auditioned using an English accent. They instead had her use her natural Scottish accent, the first time she had been able to do so in a film.
• California Doubling: Well, the Czech Republic, actually.
• Completely Different Title: Known in France as Chevalier ("Knight").
  • And in Germany as Ritter aus Leidenschaft ("Knight out of passion").
• Creator's Oddball: Brian Hegleland, screenwriter of bleak noir potboilers such as L.A. Confidential, Conspiracy Theory, Payback, Blood Work, Mystic River, and Man on Fire, writes and directs a wholly good-hearted, high-spirited romantic comedy medieval sports movie (heavy emphasis on the romance and comedy).
• Deleted Role: Olivia Williams filmed some scenes as Geoffrey Chaucer's wife Phillipa, but they were all cut. They're included on the DVD.
• Fake Brit: Australian Heath Ledger, American Alan Tudyk and also American Shannyn Sossamon as William, Wat, and Jocelyn respectively. Fortunately averted by Laura Fraser, a Scot who auditioned using an English accent but was very happy to be allowed to use her natural voice instead.
• Never Work with Children or Animals: On the DVD Commentary, Brian Helgeland notes that the horse William rides was the only horse that would stay still and not get distracted during filming. Paul Bettany adds that the only time "Barney the Wonder Horse" acted out was when he grabbed the wrong part of the horse's reins, which caused the horse to try and bite him.
• On-Set Injury: Paul Bettany developed laryngitis because of all the shouting he did as Hammy Herald Chaucer.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • Kate asking William what he's planning to do with his hair while she's teaching him to dance. Originally William was meant to show up at the banquet with his hair slicked back and covered in silver as a result of Kate restyling it for him. Only one scene, which didn't make the cut, was filmed this way before everyone realised it looked ridiculous and the decision was made to stick with his usual blonde hair. As a result Kate's comment is left as an odd non-sequitur.
  • Adhemar's herald had a scene where he said all of his praise and titles correctly, thus allowing the audience to understand just how much he had messed it up in the later scene where Chaucer flashed light in his eyes. This scene was cut, so all that's left is the scene where the herald gets it wrong.
  • After Chaucer pays off Simon the Summoner and Peter the Pardoner the duo leave with a snarky comment that they'll see him again. They were originally supposed to return at the end of the movie informing Chaucer and Jocelyne that William's true identity has been revealed but the scene was cut.
• Playing Against Type: It's quite surprising that James Purefoy, usually a villain or Jerkass, is the benevolent Prince Edward. He'd later play the loyal Kantos Kan as a One-Scene Wonder in John Carter.
• Romance on the Set: Paul Bettany and Laura Fraser dated for two years.
• Throw It In!:
  • The "We Will Rock You" opening was filmed by Helgeland and second unit director Allen Gaif as a joke, and was kept (along with all the other rock music) because the team wanted to show that back then people thought their music was just as good as we think ours is today.
  • When Will wins his first sword match, the crowd is silent until Roland spurs them on to cheer. As it happens, the extras who composed the audience were Czech and didn't realize they were supposed to cheer when Chaucer finished his speech. In fact, in the background you can see some of the extras raise their hands to cheer before realizing Bettany isn't done speaking.
  • According to DVD Commentary: Jocelyn's "Oh that is lovely!" in response to the priest's gesture prompting her to kiss his ring was an ad-lib. "Your entrails will become your extrails" was an audition ad-lib that helped Alan Tudyk get the part and made it into the film.
  • The knight that gets knocked off his horse in the opening scene of the film? That's Heath Ledger's Stunt Double, and the entire scene is actually footage of an accident he had while filming. He was genuinely knocked unconscious.
  • Chaucer kissing Adhemar's herald twice was unscripted. Paul Bettany was told to "surprise him", though how wasn't specified.
  • While Adhemar is talking to an assosciate about how to beat "Ulrich" there's a shot of William with a dramatic zoom in. This was actually a mistake, the camera operator realised mid-shot that he wasn't focused properly and tried to correct it. Director Brian Helgeland thought the resulting shot looked cool and decided to use it with an added sound effect to highlight the camera movement.
• Typecasting: Rufus Sewell as the evil Romantic False Lead - he'd also played a aristocratic French Jerk in The Legend of Zorro.
• What Could Have Been: Hugh Grant was considered for Geoffrey Chaucer, but the studio thought that he was a leading man who wouldn't do a supporting role.

---