Greta Garbo initially formed a very close relationship with Freddie Bartholomew until the 11-year-old asked her for an autograph for his uncle one day. After that their relationship was strictly professional. For the rest of his life he was dismayed at suddenly losing her friendship.
Aware that her co-star Fredric March was notorious for seducing his leading ladies, Greta Garbo reportedly wore garlic under her clothes and purposely had bad breath in order to stave off his advances.
Ronald Colman was offered the role of Count Vronsky. Realising that it was a Greta Garbo picture, he doubled his asking price and took himself out of consideration.
Near the beginning of this film is one of the most memorable and famed tracking shots in film history. For nearly a whole minute, the camera, beginning at one end of a very long table full of a feast, draws back and back, "pulling" the viewer down the center of the table through candlesticks, dinnerware, plates of meats, vegetables, breads, roasted pig, pheasants, and other delicacies. until it stops at the other end, showing the entire feast end to end in one shot, all while Russian military men rejoice with a Russian folk song.
The Russian ballet sequence was shot in shades of black and white only. No color was permitted in either the costumes or the makeup.