Anne Hathaway was cast in the lead role but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts with the movies Song One (2014) and Interstellar (2014). She was replaced by Keira Knightley.
Shelley is a California Desert Tortoise. She was a class pet in a Seattle middle school at the time of filming.
Annika has a pet turtle named Lynn. According to Lynn Shelton on her director's commentary, this was in the original script and not a reference to her. The turtle's real name is Shelly, which also happens to be similar to the director's last name. It was originally a dog before being changed to a turtle for budgetary reasons.
This is the only one of director Lynn Shelton's feature films not also written by her.