One scene called for actor Al Pacino to be surprised after opening a door. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) was filming in a nearby studio, so director Garry Marshall arranged for William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelley in full costume, to be on the other side of the door that Pacino opened.
The casting of Michelle Pfeiffer was met with some negativity as many felt the actress was too beautiful to play such a damaged and plain character. However, while the film wasn't an enormous hit, Pfeiffer's performance was widely-praised and the actress was nominated for a Golden Globe as a result.
Kathy Bates originated the role of Frankie on the stage. She campaigned to get the role in the film, but lost out to Michelle Pfeiffer.
Michelle Pfeiffer took on the role of the emotionally fragile waitress in part to work with Al Pacino again after having filmed एलपचीनो स्कारफेस (1983) with him nearly a decade before.
Kathy Bates, who had originated the role of Frankie on stage, was passed over in favor of Michelle Pfeiffer, a fate that often seemed to befall her stage characters when transferred to the screen, which delayed her eventual success on film. Ironically, in this case, it was Marshall's former brother-in-law, Rob Reiner, who gave Bates her big-screen break in मिज़री (1990), from which she ended up better-off, as she won a Best Actress Academy Award (Oscar) for the film.