Trivia: During rehearsals, William Hurt and Raul Julia actually traded roles at one point as an exercise and rehearsed all their scenes together playing each other's parts. Raul Julia said it was a fantastic exercise, as it allowed him to see and hear what his co-stars saw while acting against him.
Trivia: Reportedly, both William Hurt and Raul Julia waived their usual upfront fees so the movie could get made because they believed in the project. The production was so tight that their usual paychecks would have eaten up too much of the budget.
Trivia: William Hurt had numerous and constant conflicts with the director over the creative vision of the film, and the fact they could not communicate well due to a language barrier. Hurt also alluded to the fact that his notorious reputation (being very difficult to work with perfectionist who obsessively tried to inhabit his characters) may have contributed to their antagonistic relationship. Despite this, the film and Hurt were met with critical acclaim, and Hurt earned an Oscar for his part.
Trivia: Despite being considered an important piece of film history and being an Academy Award-winning film, "Kiss of the Spider Woman" is notoriously hard to find in many countries (including the US) due to nightmarish rights disputes. It was only available on disc for a brief window, has gone through multiple decade-or-more stretches without any official release and is unavailable to stream legally.
