The two actors first met on the set of the movie A Beautiful Mind (2001). They were in different relationships at that time, but they later got married in 2003. Paul Bettany said that it was amazing working with his wife and that they'd wanted to for quite a while. They didn't experience it with A Beautiful Mind, as their characters didn't meet. The couple thought that they would portray the characters Emma Darwin and Charles Darwin well and wouldn't influence their story because their real relationship was so far from the one in the script.