Bette was dying to play Queen Elizabeth I opposite Katharine Hepburn's Mary but there are three versions of why she didn't get the role: 1. Director John Ford vetoed her; 2. Warner Brothers refused to lend her out to RKO, maker of "Mary;" 3. Co-star Fredric March insisted on his wife, Florence Eldridge playing the part (which she did).

Rogers wanted to show she was a serious actress and even did a screen test for John Ford, but she was declined for the part of Elizabeth I. Interestingly, a year later she and Katharine Hepburn would make a movie together, Stage Door.