Revealing mistake: When Natalie Portman's character is about to be executed, if you look at the wall behind the executioner, you can see a modern metal drainpipe.
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
1 revealing mistake - chronological order
Directed by: Justin Chadwick
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman, Eric Bana, Jim Sturgess
Revealing mistake: When Natalie Portman's character is about to be executed, if you look at the wall behind the executioner, you can see a modern metal drainpipe.
Mary Boleyn: How can you show your face in here? My own sister... take care, because he would only do to you what he has done to me.
Anne Boleyn: You should not have given yourself so lightly, these are the consequences.
Mary Boleyn: I gave myself to a man I loved, and he loved me.
Anne Boleyn: A man's love is worthless. Our mother's loved, look where it got her, a feeble husband. Love is of no value without power and position. If I gave the king a son, he would not be a bastard.
Trivia: In real life, Mary secretly married her second husband, William Stafford, while Anne was still Queen. Henry and Anne did not approve because Stafford had a low social rank and little money. Mary was banished from court, and her parents and uncle disowned her. Her final interaction with Anne was probably when Anne sent her a golden cup and some money, but still would not allow her at court. She was probably not present at the execution of Anne, like in this movie.
Question: On the corrections page for this movie, someone stated that Henry was the father of both of Mary's children. How? Didn't he stop seeing her while she was still on bed rest during the pregnancy of their first child?
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Answer: The information on the corrections page is inaccurate. Mary Boleyn married William Carey in 1520. Because her exact birth date is unknown, no one knows how old she was when she married. It was shortly after her wedding that she began her affair with Henry VIII. It is also unknown if either of the two children she bore during this time were fathered by Henry, though there was certainly a high probability that he sired one or both. However, Henry never publicly acknowledged either child, unlike the illegitimate son he had with another mistress. The events in the film and book are fictional, and they vary from the historical facts. It is never mentioned in the film that Mary had a second child, either by Henry or William Carey.
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