A pneumatic bra was built to create the effect where Meryl Streep's breasts become higher and firmer after drinking the potion, but the effect didn't look realistic enough. In order to get the shot, Streep's dresser stood behind her, out of sight of the camera, and pushed her breasts into position.
At one point, Lisle asks Madeline how old she thinks she is. Madeline answers 38, and Lisle gives her a dirty look. Isabella Rossellini was 39 years old at the time of filming.
In the scene where the "resurrected" Madeline confronts Ernest, Meryl Streep had to wear a blue screen hood over her head while walking backward. Her neck was covered with prosthetics to give the illusion of a severely broken and twisted neck. On a separate day, Streep, while wearing a long-sleeved blue screen shirt and sitting in a spin chair in front of a blue screen, was filmed from the waist up as she did Madeline's lines and facial expressions. Then, in post-production, the two shots were digitally composited together.
This is the first film that used photo-realistic human skin software.
Robert Zemeckis: [revolutionizing visual effects no matter the film genre] The film and other Zemeckis films that have revolutionized visual effects are Ritorno al futuro (1985), Chi ha incastrato Roger Rabbit (1988), Ritorno al futuro - Parte II (1989), Ritorno al futuro - Parte III (1990), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), Le verità nascoste (2000), Flight (2012), and The Walk (2015).
Robert Zemeckis: [a sexy redheaded woman in a red dress] In the film, after years of being mousy and frumpy, Helen Sharp transforms herself into a sexy redhead and wears a red dress at her book signing party. In one of Zemeckis' previous films, Chi ha incastrato Roger Rabbit (1988), Jessica Rabbit is a sexy redhead who famously wears a red dress.