 Winslet was drawn to the idea of playing an intellectual and zesty female lead, and in research, she read Murdoch's novels, studied her husband's memoir "Elegy for Iris", and watched televised interviews of Murdoch.The project was filmed over four weeks and allowed Winslet to bring her daughter, who was six months old at the time, on set.Writing for "The Guardian", Martin Amis commented that "the seriousness and steadiness of [Winslet's] gaze effectively suggest the dawning amplitude of the Murdoch imagination".