There was much bad blood between Miriam Hopkins and Bette Davis, who had won an Oscar for "Jezebel", a role that Hopkins had played on Broadway and expected to play in the movie. Making things works, Davis had had an affair with Hopkins' husband Anatole Litvak while making "The Sisters".
To get the effects of aging, Bette Davis wore no lipstick or eyeshadow, and makeup artist Perc Westmore used a pale, ashen base on her face.
On her first day on the set, Hopkins wore an exact duplicate of the dress Davis had worn in "Jezebel". Davis reflected on this time with Hopkins in her autobiography with the following observations "Miriam used and, I must give her credit, knew every trick in the book. I became fascinated watching them appear one by one. When she was supposed to be listening to me, her eyes would wander off into some other world in which she was the sweetest of them all. Her restless little spirit was impatiently awaiting her next line, her golden curls quivering with expectancy."
Humphrey Bogart was originally cast as Clem Spender, but studio head Jack L. Warner felt he looked neither heroic nor romantic and had him fired after two days of filming.
Warner Brothers publicity department took full advantage of the dueling divas and played up their feud to boost ticket sales for the upcoming film. They even went as far as to circulate a photo of the actresses in full costume with boxing gloves on, ready to duke it out, with director Goulding looking resigned between them.