To avoid legal consequences, the crew delayed the filming of sexually explicit scenes until after actor David Kross' 18th birthday on July 4 2008.

Stephen Daldry's first choice for the lead role was Kate Winslet, who originally turned down the offer due to a scheduling conflict with Revolutionary Road (2008). When Nicole Kidman accepted the role, the producers built in a hiatus in order to allow her to finish filming Baz Luhrmann's Australia (2008). However, by the time Kidman was set to begin her scenes on the film, she withdrew because of her pregnancy, vacating the role. Winslet, who was now available, agreed to replace Kidman.

Bruno Ganz plays Michael Berg's Holocaust-surviving professor here, and famously played Adolf Hitler in La caduta - Gli ultimi giorni di Hitler (2004).

David Kross learned English specially for the film.

Kate Winslet's omission of Harvey Weinstein in her Oscar win acceptance speech was intentional. Even though she'd not been sexually propositioned by him, she found his aggressive 'business behavior' with her over the years to be downright repugnant and therefore purposefully did not thank him.

Producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella both died before the completion of the movie. As the film was nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, the Academy made an exception from their rules not to name more than three producers as nominees because of this rare circumstance. In the end the two producers Donna Gigliotti and Redmond Morris who took over duties were nominated as well as the posthumously honored Minghella and Pollack.

When Michael is reading to Hanna: "She was dead, and past all help, or need of it.." and she begins to weep vehemently, he is reading from Chapter 71 of The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens.

When selling the rights to his novel, Bernhard Schlink insisted that the film be shot in English.

Ralph Fiennes was always first choice to play the adult Michael.

When Michael narrates: "I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I'll love. Danger will only increase my love, it will sharpen it, it will give it spice.[...]" he is quoting from "Intrigue and Love" by 18th Century German poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller.

Author Bernhard Schlink always envisioned Kate Winslet as playing Hanna.

In the film version of The Reader, young Michael Berg's sickness is scarlet fever, while in the book he got hepatitis.

The Latin lines Michael quotes to Hanna are "Quo, quo scelesti ruitis? Aut cur dexteris / aptantur enses conditi?" These are the opening lines of Horace's 7th Epode, a short poem where he expresses outrage at the fact that his countrymen are still engaged in civil war. "Villains, where are you rushing to? Why are your hands / Grasping those swords that were sheathed?" (translation A.S. Kline). The Greek lines he quotes are the opening stanza of Sappho's 16th fragment: (transliterated) "Oi men ippeon stroton, oi de pesdon, / oi de naon phais' epi gan melainan / emmenai kalliston, ego de ken' ot- / to tis eratai". "Some say a host of horsemen, others of infantry, and others of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the dark earth: but I say, it is what you love." (translation Denys Page).

David Kross' mother was initially reluctant to let her son make the film as it meant 4 months out of school. He was only allowed to pursue the role if he passed his exams.

Stephen Daldry read the book in one sitting on a train journey.

The Reader is the first English speaking role of German actor David Kross although he had previously played lead roles in German movies such as Giovane e violento (2006) and Krabat e il mulino dei dodici corvi (2008).

Shot over a period of a year.

Producer Scott Rudin was originally a producer of the movie but he got into conflict with executive producer Harvey Weinstein. Rudin wanted to push the release date back to 2009 to avoid an Oscar campaign along with Il dubbio (2008) and Revolutionary Road (2008) both which were also produced by Rudin. Eventually Rudin left the film and had his name removed from the credits. Ironically, The Reader was nominated for an Academy Award 2009 in the Best Picture category (and thus got producer's nominations) but neither Doubt nor Revolutionary Road.

Stephen Daldry's third film - and the third time he landed a Best Director Oscar nomination.

Before Kate Winslet accepted the role of Hanna, Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard and Naomi Watts were considered for the part.

The film's original cinematographer was Roger Deakins. From September to October 2007, he shot scenes that didn't feature the character Hanna and shot all the sequences with Ralph Fiennes as the adult protagonist. After filming was shut down (to give Nicole Kidman, who had been cast as Hanna, time to finish filming Australia (2008) before joining the production), Deakins left to shoot Il dubbio (2008) and begin pre-production on A Serious Man (2009). Once Kidman withdrew from the film and was replaced by Kate Winslet, filming resumed in March 2008; the new cinematographer, Chris Menges, shot all of Winslet's scenes.

Production designer Brigitte Broch emigrated from her native Germany in the early 1990s, mainly out of protest at the atrocities that her previous generation committed or tolerated during World War II, settling in Mexico. The Reader - A voce alta (2008) marks the first time she returned to Germany.

Kate Winslet originally campaigned in the Supporting Actress category so as not to upset her chances in the Lead Actress category where she was up for her role in Revolutionary Road (2008). That worked in her favor at the Golden Globes but Academy voters overwhelmingly went for her as Lead for The Reader - A voce alta (2008).

Alexandra Maria Lara (playing young Ilana Mather) also appeared in La caduta - Gli ultimi giorni di Hitler (2004) together with Bruno Ganz. He played Adolf Hitler and she played Traudl Junge, his private secretary.

Despite the poster showing Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes' characters together when Winslet's is still young, Fiennes only has one scene with her when she is much older.

David Hare opted not to include voiceover in the film version, differing significantly from the novel which consists of many lengthy interior monologues.

Kate Winslet won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in this film, but Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes for the same film. All four of her fellow nominees (Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie, Melissa Leo and Anne Hathaway) in the Best Actress category at the Academy Awards that year have won Best Supporting Actress Oscars at one point in their careers.

Kate Winslet's Best Actress Oscar winning performance was the only nominee in the category in a Best Picture nominee that year.

Jonas Jägermeyr appears as one of the seminar students, and also starred in I ragazzi del Reich (2004) as a student being indoctrinated into the Nazi Code.

Juliette Binoche was considered for the role of Hanna Schmitz.

Three composers were considered to compose the original music - Nico Muhly, Ozren K. Glaser and Alberto Iglesias.

Anthony Minghella snapped up the film rights before the novel was published with the intention of writing and directing the film himself. David Hare was very keen to adapt the novel but Minghella refused. Eight years later Minghella went to Hare and asked him to write the screenplay as he simply couldn't find the time to do it himself. Ironically, Minghella died prematurely following an operation during the film's production.

Angelina Jolie was considered for the lead role.

Michael Berg reads 'Emilia Galotti' by Lessing. Volker Bruch (a seminar student in this film) and Burghart Klaußner (the judge} also starred in Goethe! (2010), with Volker as the friend of Goethe and Burghart as the father of Lotte. Lotte's favorite book is Emilia Galotti.

English film debut of Florian Bartholomäi, appearing as Michael's older brother, Thomas.

The only film that year to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, but not at the Producers Guild of America Awards.

In 2005, Kate Winslet appeared on the English TV comedy series Extras (2005) in Extras: Kate Winslet (2005) as a bawdy, irreverent version of "herself." In that guise, she made fun of actors who do movies about the Holocaust specifically to try to win Oscars, including a dig at her future The Reader - A voce alta (2008) costar Ralph Fiennes, who starred in Schindler's List (1993). Her "Kate Winslet" character denies that she is making a Holocaust movie for noble reasons like using her profile to keep the message alive about the Holocaust: "And I don't think we really need another film about the Holocaust, do we? It's like, how many have there been? You know, we get it - it was grim, move on. No, I'm doing it because I've noticed that if you do a film about the Holocaust - guaranteed Oscar! I've been nominated four times. Never won. The whole world is going 'why hasn't Winslet won one?'...That's it. That's why I'm doing it. Schindler's bloody List. Il pianista (2002). Oscars coming out of their arse." Three years later, Winslet made The Reader (in which she played a guard at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp) and did win an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.

It took a total of seven hours to transform Kate Winslet into Old Hanna.

When Hanna commits suicide by hanging in her prison cell, she uses the books that Michael read to her ('The Odyssey,' 'War and Peace,' etc.) as a platform.

In the film version while Kate Winslet is swimming and David Kross is writing a poem about her, there is a cut on Michael's lower lip. This is because in the book, Michael was struck by Hanna when one morning on their bicycle tour, Michael left their inn early to get breakfast and when Michael returned, Hanna was furious for leaving her alone.

In the film version, when Michael was with his friends, swimming and Sophie came up from swimming and ask him "Are you alright", Michael suddenly stares and then get up and began to run as if to catch up somebody. This is because in the book he suddenly saw Hanna looking at him together with his friends.

In the book, Michael asked Hanna's name on their 6th or 7th tryst; in the movie Michael said "I've been here 3 times".

In the book, their cycling tour was for 4 days while in the movie it is only 2 days.