Many of Hannah's scenes were filmed in Mia Farrow's apartment. Woody Allen said that Farrow once had the eerie experience of turning on the television, stumbling upon a broadcast of the movie, and seeing her own apartment on television, while she was sitting in it.
After Max von Sydow and Barbara Hershey finished filming their characters' break-up scene, the crew gave them a standing ovation.
Writer and director Woody Allen admits that the role of Hannah was based on Mia Farrow being "a romanticized perception of Mia. She's very stable, she has eight children now, and she's able to run her career, and have good relationships with her sister and her mother. I'm very impressed with those qualities, and I thought if she had two unstable sisters, it would be interesting."
Sir Michael Caine played Mia Farrow's husband. In real life, Caine had been a long-term friend to Farrow and Woody Allen, then a couple. He had been the one who introduced the couple to each other nearly twenty years before.
While scenes were being shot in Mia Farrow's apartment, she and several of her children lived there and went about their daily routines. The family was careful not to interrupt production, or to do anything that would affect the shooting schedule, but the situation was hectic for family and crew alike. Michael Caine likened the situation to watching an intimate home movie. He recalled that one moment, Farrow would be feeding her children dinner, and the assistant director would tell her that she was needed on-set. She would put down the kitchen utensils, walk into the next room, and begin to act.