Director George Cukor told the Soviet studio head how honored he was to be filming in the same studio where Sergei Eisenstein had filmed Battleship Potemkin (1925). "Yes", said the studio head, "and with the very same equipment."
According to Cicely Tyson, director George Cukor accused her of jinxing this movie by using voodoo magic. Relations between Tyson and Cukor eventually deteriorated to the point where, when Tyson would arrive on-set in the morning, she would ask - referring to Cukor - "Is he dead yet?"
In an interview, director George Cukor recalled that during filming he received complaints from several English-speaking members of the Russian crew about Jane Fonda. Their complaint was that instead of letting them do their jobs, she would follow them around quoting passages from Karl Marx and wanting to engage the technicians in discussions about them. They told Cukor they were already Communists, that Fonda didn't have to convert them, and if she persisted in her behavior the whole crew would go on strike. The producers spoke to Fonda and got her to stop.
James Coco was originally cast as Dog. The only local fare he could stomach was bread and butter. He gained so much weight his costume no longer fit, suffered a gall bladder attack, and eventually had to be replaced. Coco later said, "They tell us it (the movie) will finish by August, but not by August of what year. I understand Elizabeth (Taylor) is having Christmas cards printed."
Columnist Rex Reed was a visitor to the trouble-plagued set. Upon greeting Dame Elizabeth Taylor for the first time, Reed asked Taylor how she was holding up under pressure. "I've been through it all, baby", she told him. "I'm Mother Courage."