This was Matthew Lillard's first film. When he noticed that Kathleen Turner had memorized everyone's names from the call sheets, he asked her why she did it. Her reply was, "Oh, honey, that's the first thing you do!"
The copyright holders of the song "Tomorrow," as heard when Mrs. Jenson watches Annie (1982) in her living room, charged $60,000 for the rights to use the song because of the explicit content of John Waters' past films.
Beverly Sutphin's friendly wave to her family while she is chasing Scotty was improvised by Kathleen Turner. John Waters didn't notice the bit until a screening where the audience laughed at it.
John Waters was interviewed about the movie and asked how he cast Kathleen Turner as Beverly. Waters said that other prominent actresses expressed interest in the part but angered him by either asking if he could rewrite the script to make Beverly less malevolent or saying they couldn't sign up for the role without doing a cast reading first. Turner made neither of these demands and said she'd love to play the role, and Waters immediately cast her.
John Waters: [Manson] A portrait of Charles Manson is among Beverly's secret stash of killer worship material.