The character of Kelly Porter, the female bubblegum pop singer who was in the closet (played by Bridget Fonda) was inspired by Lesley Gore, who actually helped compose some of the music for the movie. At the time of Gore's death in 2015, she had been with her romantic partner, Lois Sasson, for 33 years.
The soundtrack song "God Give Me Strength" was composed by Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello under curious circumstances. Since they lived on opposites sides of the Atlantic (US & UK), the song evolved over the course of several long-distance calls and recorded snippets left on answering machines.
Most of the '60s-style hair-dos in this movie were wigs. However, the Lesley Gore-inspired character Kelly Porter's incredibly styled hair was in fact actor Bridget Fonda's own hair.
According to director Allison Anders (during her commentary for the DVD), this was the first time that a movie showed a woman's "water breaking" in the recording studio scene. However, such an event had already been depicted as early as Permission d'aimer (1973). It was also the first depiction of a woman's sweater getting wet because it was time to breastfeed her baby. Anders also asked for "child care" to be listed in the end credits.
In what would have been her film debut, Amy Ryan played a character married to Eric Stoltz in the second part of the film, but was cut from the final edit of the film.