Trivia / Cold Mountain

• All-Star Cast: Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renée Zellweger, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Natalie Portman, Donald Sutherland, Ray Winstone and Brendan Gleeson.
• California Doubling: The film was mostly shot in Romania, as the real South has too many paved roads and telephone wires.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Natalie Portman originally auditioned for the part of Ada before being cast as Sara.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • Brendan Gleeson is an accomplished violin player and did all of his own playing in this movie.
  • Nicole Kidman did all of her own piano playing.
• Deleted Scene:
  • A deleted scene shows Inman staying with Sara for some time after the encounter with the Union soldiers, but Sara's baby dies and Sara commits suicide.
  • Another deleted scene shows Inman reaching Ada's farm but finding her and Ruby gone to bury Stobrod and Pangle, with Georgia informing him where to find them.
• Dyeing for Your Art:
  • Jude Law had to gain ten kilograms (twenty-two pounds) of muscle for his role on-location in Romania. As there wasn't any regular fitness equipment around, he did so by carrying his personal trainer around on his back, dragging logs, and pushing a tennis-court roller.
  • Nicole Kidman was asked to lose as much weight as possible. She went on the hard-boiled egg diet, which entailed having one egg for breakfast and two to three for dinner. This type of diet is not advisable in the long run, as it is unbalanced, unhealthful, and does not provide one with enough calories. In the end, she ended up losing more weight than she originally desired.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: Anthony Minghella spent five years on this movie. Almost one year was used for editing.
• Fake American: Virtually the whole cast for the Southern characters in the movie. Nicole Kidman is Australian, Ray Winstone, Jude Law, Eileen Atkins and Charlie Hunnam are British, Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murphy is Irish and Donald Sutherland is Canadian. Renée Zellweger is the only main cast member who is actually from the American South as she was the daughter of Norwegian immigrants in Texas. Natalie Portman is a zigzagged example as she is Israeli-born but her mom's American and she and her family later moved to the States.
• Production Posse: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jude Law and James Rebhorn all appeared in Anthony Minghella's previous film, The Talented Mr. Ripley.
• Romance on the Set: Jack White and Renée Zellweger started dating while the film was in production.
• Spared by the Cut: In a Deleted Scene, Sara's baby dies of exposure to the cold and then she shoots herself, but the two seem to live in the final film.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tom Cruise was going to star as Inman, but backed out when he learned of his ex-wife Nicole Kidman's involvement. Eric Bana, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Josh Hartnett, Daniel Day-Lewis and Brad Pitt were also considered.
  • Cate Blanchett and Julia Roberts were considered for Ada.
  • Rachel Weisz was considered for the role of Ruby Thewes.
  • Faith Hill auditioned for the part of Sara.

---