Now, Voyager went into production on April 7, 1942, with a budget of $761,000 and a 42 day shooting schedule.

Within three weeks, the film was six and a half days behind schedule. Among the problems were weather delays during location shooting at Laguna Beach, Bette Davis' illnesses and Gladys Cooper's problems remembering her lines (she was putting in long nights at the USO helping with the war effort). In addition, Davis worked very slowly, insisting on time to analyze every scene as it was shot.

On-set observers reported that Davis often seemed to be directing the film for Irving Rapper. Unlike others she had worked with, his approach to her was much more conciliatory. Rather than order her to play a scene a certain way, he would ask her to try his ideas to see if they would work for her.

To play Charlotte before her transformation, Davis asked costume designer Orry-Kelly to pad her figure to suggest extra weight, then she had makeup artist Perc Westmore give her thicker eyebrows. Her look in the film was a compromise. Originally she had wanted a more extreme look, but Wallis considered it too grotesque.

For the first scene after Charlotte's metamorphosis, Wallis asked Orry-Kelly to put her in a wide-brimmed hat so the audience wouldn't get a full look at her new face until later. He also wanted to maintain a sense of her shyness. Studio head Jack Warner objected to the choice, but Wallis ignored him.

There are several stories about the origin of the cigarette lighting ritual, in which Henreid lights two cigarettes at once then passes one to Davis. Director Irving Rapper claimed to have invented it based on a description in the novel. He said he had to come up with something to replace the clumsy description of the moment in the screenplay. Davis and Henreid said they came up with it based on the way he and his wife used to light cigarettes for each other during motor trips. Writer Casey Robinson said it had always been in his screenplay, which a perusal of the drafts on file corroborates. He didn't invent the routine, however, as it originated in a scene from one of Davis' first Warner Bros. pictures, The Rich Are Always With Us (1932), in a scene between Ruth Chatterton and George Brent.

Principal shooting on Now, Voyager finally ended on June 24, 15 days behind schedule. The final retakes were shot on July 3.

Although pleased with the film, Warner's brother Harry insisted that the scenes of Charlotte's Lake Arrowhead vacation with Tina be shortened.

Wallis also cut a scene in which Lisa (Ilka Chase) takes Charlotte to a beauty parlor before her ocean voyage, so that the audience first sees the transformed Davis at the same time as the ship's passengers. He also cut a silent dream sequence in which the young Charlotte dances with the ship's officer with whom she was once in love.

by Frank Miller