The part of Elizabeth Roffe was turned down by Candice Bergen, Jacqueline Bisset and Diane Keaton before Audrey Hepburn accepted, and the character's age was changed from 23 to 35.
Audrey Hepburn was aged about 50 when this movie was made and released. The character she plays was much younger and in her 30s. Writer Sidney Sheldon revised his "Bloodline" novel to accommodate the literary age of the film version's lead actress. Hepburn had been in semi-retirement when she agreed to do this picture. The DVD sleeve notes declare that this movie was one of the final films of actress Audrey Hepburn. Hepburn's salary on this movie was $1,000,000 plus a percentage of the gross.
DVD versions of this picture have never had the forty minutes from the network TV version put into the film to create a longer DVD cut.
According to the article "The Secret Bloodline of Audrey Hepburn" in Slant Magazine, this film "... was made during the dispiriting close of her second marriage to the Italian playboy doctor Andrea Dotti, and she turned to it in some desperation, not realizing until halfway through shooting that there was going to be an interpolated snuff film subplot! She wanted to walk, understandably, but she honored her contract, to the dismay of her fans and admirers."