In the scene where Meryl Streep enters a court room to appear in front of the grand jury in the front row (in the middle of the frame) sits a young Paul Giamatti as an extra his head turned around to have a look at her.
The Ryans were originally going to be a wealthy Jewish-American family and the hatred towards them after their son may have committed a murder was going to be related to Anti-Semitism. But the studio didn't want to deal those issues, and also didn't think that it made sense to have Liam Neeson in particular playing a Jewish character, so the family was made into a generic group of Caucasians.
The film was shot on location in Egremont, Massachusetts on Baldwin Hill East at the Rathbun Farm. Scenes were also filmed in and around Pittsfield, Lee, Great Barrington and Lenox. The court hearings were held and filmed at the Hampden County Hall of Justice in the Hampden County seat of Springfield, Massachusetts.
This crime mystery film, Antes e Depois (1996), is the second of two film collaborations between director Barbet Schroeder and Canadian Oscar®-winning film composer Howard Shore. The first collaboration was the psychological thriller Mulher Solteira Procura (1992).