Al Pacino previously starred as King Herod in Oscar Wilde's "Salomé" on Broadway in 1992 opposite Sheryl Lee (directed by Robert Allan Ackerman), and in 2003 opposite Marisa Tomei (directed by Estelle Parsons). He reprised the role in 2006 in Los Angeles opposite Jessica Chastain'.
Jessica Chastain's first film. Some of the movies she filmed since came out before it: The Tree of Life (2011), The Help (2011), The Debt (2010) and Take Shelter (2011).
Pacino "more-than-workshopped" this film production when, in April 30 - June 12 2003 Oscar Wilde's Salome" was staged as a reading at The Ethel Barrymore Theatre. Pacino was owned by Marisa Tomei (Salome), David Strathairn (John the Baptist) and Dianne Wiest (Herodias).
Features Jessica Chastain's first nude scene. She said she was hesitant about it until she researched previous filmed versions of the play and the meaning of the naked dance sequence in a book called "Sisters of Salomé." That research ultimately confirmed to her that the nude scene made sense for her character. She said, "What is that power? What is that freedom? Even the idea of the Salem witch trials, when you think of the young girls dancing naked, what is so scary to society about that kind of female sexual freedom. I realized that there's power in that to harness, so learning all of that stuff actually made me feel it was important for the character that there was nudity."