"Mystic Pizza" is a real pizza parlor, located at 56 West Main St. in Mystic, Connecticut. Writer Amy Holden Jones was vacationing in Mystic one summer, saw the pizza parlor and was inspired to write the story. After the movie came out, the real Mystic Pizza shop became so popular, lines would stretch to the sidewalk and patrons would regularly steal mementos from the restaurant.
Debut theatrical feature film of actor-writer Matt Damon. Regular collaborator Ben Affleck also auditioned for the film.
The "Mystic Pizza" restaurant in Mystic was not where the movie was filmed. Only one scene of the movie was actually filmed in Mystic village, which was the scene where the fishing boat was going through the drawbridge. Mystic is a popular tourist destination that would have been too crowded for filming a movie so the filming was done in the sleepy neighboring town of Stonington, CT. They used a business on Water Street for restaurant filming, and in the early part of the movie there is a scene where a pizza is being delivered via motor scooter, where they go past the town green where the two old cannons are on display.
On David Letterman, Julia Roberts explains that after her audition she was told she was good but physically completely wrong for the part. She then colored her (naturally dark blond) hair black for the follow-up audition and got the part. She also tells the story of how while waiting for her audition all the actresses up for the part were intensely studying the script. So she decided to listen to her Walkman and sing loudly to put them off and stand out to the casting director and it worked.