Gerry Stamford's character may be an amalgamation of both Olof Palme and Andrew Peacock. Like Gerry's character Olof Palme died tragically and prematurely. Andrew Peacock was Australia's opposition leader.
In order to protect the political career of both lovers Shirley Maclaine may have made deliberate misleading alteration. For example, Andrew peacock was the conservative party opposition leader, but Gerry Stamford's character was the British labour party opposition leader.
Gerry died in a car crash. Olof Palme died by assassination.
Shirley and suedish prime minister Olof Palme(Gerry Stamford)
Asked if Shirley MacLaine’s story convinced him, Charles Dance explained: “I try to keep an open mind,” he said diplomatically. “I had lots of discussions with Shirley, but most of them went round in circles. She’s almost a theologian now, you know. She’s read her Bible and her Koran and she can back up everything she says with data. It’s quite hard to have a rational conversation. Personally I think it’s quite brave of her to have done this. She is laying herself on the line.”
In an early 1987 interview, Charles Dance admitted he had still not watched the completed miniseries, and allowed that its supernatural subject matter "invites cynicism." Nevertheless, by late 1987, he commented further that working with Shirley was a very happy experience for him: "Shirley is extraordinary. More than a little eccentric! It was marvellous, and a great pleasure to work with her. A STAR in the proper sense of that word," he said. "Shirley works from the gut. Meryl [Streep, with whom he worked on Plenty] is much more cerebral. That's the essential difference between them. But both are consumate artistes. Shirley has been at it longer. She has come up the hard way, having started out as a chorus girl. That's not to say Meryl hasn't worked hard for it. But Shirley is from the days of the old Hollywood star system, and is a wonderful product of it. Yes, working with her was an enormously enjoyable experience!"
The character of Gerry was created to protect the private life of Shirley's famous ex-lover. It really was Sweden's then Prime Minister, Olaf Palme, who was gunned down in Stockholm during the shooting of Out On A Limb, on February 28, 1986, as he was walking home from a cinema with his wife.
The role of Gerry -the smart, intellectual, charming and tall British politician- was written with Albert Finney (Erin Brokovitch) in mind. But though Shirley is a good friend of the talented actor, she couldn't convince him to take on the role. She tried to picture who she would like to be in bed with -Richard Harris, James Fox and Gabriel Byrne were all approached and successively turned down the role.
Charles Dance was available and willing to take on the role of Gerry.
Though Shirley was very happy with Charles' readings in spite of his cold attitude during their first meeting, she was concerned about the age difference -Dance being 13 years younger than her, while Gerry's character was supposed to be 5 years older. When she asked him if he could look older than his real age, he responded "You'll have to take me as I am or take another actor"; when she further asked if he really wanted to play the role of Gerry, he admitted that he would "very much like so, and I'd be very disappointed if you chose any other actor", which confirmed to Shirley that this was her Gerry!
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from the Shirley book :
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