10 Intriguing Details About The Others

Upon its release in the summer of 2001, Alejandro Amenábar's The Others was immediately celebrated as a modern horror masterpiece. This atmospheric Gothic tale centers on Grace (Nicole Kidman), a mother living in a secluded mansion on Jersey, one of the British Channel Islands, during World War II. Alongside her two children, who suffer from photosensitivity (played by Alakina Mann and James Bentley), Grace grapples with eerie occurrences as her children claim to encounter ghosts. These events challenge her rigid religious convictions, forcing her to confront the inexplicable.

By the age of 25, Amenábar had already gained international acclaim with his 1997 film Open Your Eyes, featuring Penélope Cruz (later adapted by Cameron Crowe into Vanilla Sky, also starring Cruz). However, The Others solidified his reputation as a global filmmaker. Despite its small cast and confined settings, the film grossed nearly $210 million worldwide against a $17 million budget. It earned eight Goya Awards (Spain's equivalent of the Oscars) out of 15 nominations, with Amenábar securing Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Beyond its accolades, here are some lesser-known facts about this chilling cinematic gem.

1. THE MOVIE WAS INITIALLY PLANNED TO TAKE PLACE IN CHILE.

Director Amenábar, who holds dual citizenship in Chile and Spain, was born in Chile in 1972 and moved to Spain with his family at just 18 months old. His early success came from Spanish-language films, and his original script for The Others was also written in Spanish and intended to be set in southern Chile. However, when the decision was made to produce the film in English, Amenábar insisted on finding a location with a strong Catholic tradition to preserve the religious symbolism central to his story.

"After my producers read the script, they felt it had the essence of a classic Victorian ghost story, making England a more fitting setting," Amenábar explained to journalist Tony Earnshaw in Fantastique: Interviews with Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Filmmakers. The Channel Islands, located off the coast of Normandy, were selected due to their deep Catholic roots and their history of Nazi occupation during World War II. Amenábar added, "The story required the husband to go to war and return, so setting it in England during WWII, particularly in these islands—the only British territory occupied by the Nazis—felt natural."

2. THE DECISION TO FILM IN ENGLISH WAS INFLUENCED BY TOM CRUISE.

Amenábar wrote and directed the 1997 psychological thriller Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes), which caught Tom Cruise's attention after its screening at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Cruise later produced and starred in its remake, Vanilla Sky, directed by Cameron Crowe. Although Amenábar wasn't involved in the remake, Cruise admired his work and wanted to collaborate with him directly.

When Cruise read Amenábar's script for The Others, he expressed interest in producing it, provided it was made for an English-speaking audience. For Amenábar, this was a significant step, as it was only his third film and his first in English. Reflecting on the decision, Amenábar told The Guardian, "Filming in English opens up a much broader market. And with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman on board, I knew the film's trajectory was transforming."

3. ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR WAS NOT FLUENT IN ENGLISH.

For Amenábar, gaining support from Hollywood stars was surprisingly straightforward. "My biggest worry was working in a language I didn’t know," he admitted. To overcome this, he began learning English and relied on trusted collaborators. "When you take on a project outside your native language, you must depend on others. We brought in an excellent English translator… I was willing to adapt the script to ensure it felt authentically British."

4. THE FILM BROKE RECORDS AT THE GOYA AWARDS.

The Others won eight Goya Awards, including the prestigious Best Film category. This made it the first film to achieve Spain's top cinematic honor without featuring a single word of Spanish.

5. NICOLE KIDMAN AND TOM CRUISE'S DIVORCE WAS FINALIZED JUST TWO DAYS BEFORE THE FILM'S PREMIERE.

Principal photography for The Others wrapped in the summer of 2000, but the announcement of Cruise and Kidman's separation came in February 2001, during the film's post-production phase. Their highly publicized divorce was settled on August 8, 2001, merely two days before the movie's U.S. release on August 10, 2001.

"As the executive producer of The Others, Tom Cruise ensured Kidman received an exceptionally generous divorce settlement," Variety remarked in its review. Amenábar emphasized that neither Cruise nor Kidman allowed their personal struggles to interfere with their commitment to the film. "Personal issues are always a concern," he told The Guardian, "But both are incredibly dedicated professionals. Their presence at the Los Angeles premiere demonstrated their unwavering support for the project."

6. KIDMAN TEMPORARILY LEFT THE FILM DURING REHEARSALS.

During rehearsals and pre-production, the film's dark themes—especially [SPOILER] Grace's act of killing her children—triggered such severe nightmares for Kidman that she initially left the project. "There was a point where I couldn’t emotionally handle the role," she revealed. "Staying in that mindset was incredibly challenging… the lines between reality and the character blur during intense filming." Thankfully, Amenábar and his team persuaded her to return, though Kidman admitted, "I was relieved to finally let go of the character."

7. THE MAJORITY OF THE FILM WAS PRODUCED IN SPAIN.

While Amenábar adapted the film's setting and language, he remained firm about shooting it in Spain. The primary location, the Palacio de los Hornillos in Cantabria, was built in 1904 by London architect Ralph Selden Wornum as the country residence of the Duke of Santo Mauro. This made it one of the rare Victorian-style structures in Spain.

The foggy scene where Grace reunites with her husband was filmed along the Lime Walk at Kent's Penshurst Place, a favorite spot for British period dramas (including parts of The Princess Bride). However, the majority of the film was shot in Madrid and the Hornillos estate, with outdoor scenes enveloped in gray mist. As Variety's Dennis Harvey noted in his review, the film's aesthetic is "thoroughly British in every detail."

8. MIRRORING THEIR CHARACTERS, THE CHILD ACTORS WERE SHIELDED FROM SUNLIGHT DURING PRODUCTION.

Early in the film, Grace explains that her children, Anne and Nicholas, suffer from a severe light allergy, possibly xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare genetic condition that prevents the body from repairing UV damage. To maintain authenticity, actors Alakina Mann and James Bentley, who Amenábar described as behaving like real siblings, were kept indoors throughout the entire three-and-a-half-month shoot.

"I felt sorry for them because they couldn’t be exposed to sunlight to keep their skin as pale as possible," Amenábar shared with Nitrate Online. "They wore makeup, but staying pale was essential. They could only go out at night, like little vampires."

9. AMENÁBAR, LIKE THE CHARACTER LYDIA, EXPERIENCED A PERIOD OF MUTENESS.

In the film, Grace speculates that Lydia, the kitchen maid (played by Elaine Cassidy), stopped speaking due to a traumatic event. By the end, Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), the enigmatic head servant, reveals that Lydia fell silent after realizing she was no longer alive.

As a young child, Amenábar experienced a condition similar to selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that often leaves children unable to speak. His family fled Chile for Madrid just two weeks before General Pinochet's coup, when Amenábar was only 18 months old. "I had begun speaking a little in Chile, but after moving to Spain, I didn’t say a word for an entire year," he revealed during a 2007 address to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

10. AMENÁBAR MAKES A CAMEO IN ONE OF THE VINTAGE "BOOK OF THE DEAD" PHOTOS.

Following the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan, Amenábar included a subtle cameo in his horror film. "Half of the photographs in the movie are authentic, while the other half are recreations," Amenábar explained about the postmortem photographs Grace discovers in the attic. "We borrowed original photos but misplaced them." As a result, replicas were created, and the director appears in one of them.