Australian screen legend Jack Thompson never saw this film as a ''gay movie." He once said that ''its no more about homosexuality than 'Oedipus Rex' is about blindness. It's a really funny, moving and touching story about love.''
The film's screenwriter-source playwright David Stevens has said of the source material that ''the most important thing that came out of the play for me was that it actually seemed to change some people's lives. There were young gay people of both sexes who brought their parents to see the play, and the reaction we saw was very moving. And that's very rewarding. I hope the film has the same effect on people.''
According to Russell Crowe, John Polson asked to practice the tentative kissing scene between Jeff Mitchell and Greg. Crowe declined the request and said, "here's the way to do it mate: you close your eyes, I'll close my eyes, we'll just come together and I bet we remember how to do it!", and the scene was improvised.
For the film, Jack Thompson and John Polson both reprized their roles from an Australian stage production.
'The Sum of Us' was (David Stevens)'s third play in his 'A Currency Trilogy', and it was first produced in Australia in 1992 by the Sydney Theatre Company. This screen adaptation mimics the play's 'breaking the fourth wall' device, with direct to camera conversational asides by both Harry (Jack Thompson) and Jeff (Russell Crowe).