It's never really explained in the movie but I did wonder whether Queen Elizabeth perhaps passed on her immortality to Orlando, that she had been living for centuries and slowly growing older and then passed the baton on to Orlando, as it were.
I can't see the problem with Orlando being played by a woman at all - this is a character who spends half the film as a man and the other half as a woman, whoever plays Orlando they're going to have to play a different gender at some point. Part of what the film is trying to say is that Orlando is the same person, it's how everyone else reacts to him/her that changes.
I can't see the problem with Orlando being played by a woman at all - this is a character who spends half the film as a man and the other half as a woman, whoever plays Orlando they're going to have to play a different gender at some point. Part of what the film is trying to say is that Orlando is the same person, it's how everyone else reacts to him/her that changes.
And it wasn't a problem, simply a curiosity behind the director's choice to have Crispin play Queen Elizabeth. I found it intriguing and wondered about the behind the scenes story to it. That glimmer beneath the surface of a pond that catches your eye and you are fascinated by it.
I do know those scenes with the Queen and Orlando had an extra line or two of poetry for me because of it. And in my research I couldn't find anything about it. Adding to my own sense of mystery and awe to it, as it were.