There were 15 takes of Sissy Spacek slapping Marisa Tomei. The final version of the film used the first take.
The title refers to the rear compartment of a lobster trap known as the "bedroom" and the fact that it can only hold up to two lobsters, before the lobsters begin to turn on each other. When there are more than two lobsters, it is said that there is "trouble in the bedroom."
A scene cut from the final version shows Ruth (Sissy Spacek) and Matt (Tom Wilkinson) watching the film Barry Lyndon (1975) at The Strand Theater in Rockland, Maine on the night of their wedding anniversary. Ruth tells her son Frank (Nick Stahl) "It was the first film your father and I ever saw together." This was intended by director Todd Field as an homage to Stanley Kubrick, whom Field had worked with on Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
Todd Field was so nervous about the reception of this film at the Sundance Film Festival that he visited an emergency room, fearing that the chest pains he was experiencing were symptoms of a heart attack. In addition, he was so upset when he learned that Miramax had acquired the film at Sundance that he actually wept because of Harvey Weinstein's reputation for re-editing and changing director's cuts. Tom Cruise, a personal friend of Field's and cousin of one of the film's co-stars, William Mapother, advised Field not to do anything about it, let Weinstein alter the film and allow it to test poorly at showings, and then persuade Weinstein to release the original cut after reminding him how well the film had been received at Sundance. Field said he followed the advice exactly and it worked.
Henry Field: When Matt remembers his son climbing a tree as a child, the younger version of Frank Fowler is played by Todd Field's son.