Sir Anthony Hopkins astounded the crew by delivering the entire seven-page courtroom speech in a single take. Steven Spielberg was so in awe, he couldn't bring himself to call him Tony, and insisted on addressing him as Sir Anthony throughout the shoot.
Theodore Joadson (Morgan Freeman) is a fictional creation. In real life, it was Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr. (Austin Pendleton), a Yale professor of theology and sacred literature, who discovered Ensign James Covey (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the Mende sailor who served as a translator for the Amistad captives. As depicted in this movie, Gibbs learned to count to ten in Mende, and wandered around the docks of New York City repeating the numbers, until Covey heard and recognized his own language, and spoke to the Professor.
In real life Roger Sherman Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey) was an older, more experienced lawyer than his character is in the movie. A grandson of Roger Sherman (the only person to sign all four great state papers of the U.S.: the Continental Association; the Declaration of Independence; the Articles of Confederation; and, the Constitution). Baldwin was in his late 40s and a member of the Connecticut State Senate when he took the defense of the Amistad captives. After the Amistad case, Baldwin was elected Governor, and later U.S. Senator, for the state of Connecticut. He died in 1863.