Emily Mortimer said being totally nude in this film helped her overcome her chronic feelings of embarrassment. She said the scene forever transformed her. "A lot of actors, and especially people who went to drama school, always talked about 'being in the moment'," she explains, "and I was always like, 'Oh my god, I don't think I've ever been in the moment! What does that mean? I've never been to drama school, I'm a fraud!' And then (writer/director Nicole Holofcenter) wrote this scene, and I was madly in the moment. There was never less of a gap between me and the character I was playing. I was as vulnerable, as brave, as stupid, as naked, as everything. It was an incredible feeling and I felt like, 'Oh, this is proper, and I'd like to keep doing this.'"
Emily Mortimer revealed to Allure magazine that after her full-frontal nude scene, a fan offered some unsolicited advice about grooming her natural pubic hair. And not in so many words: "A stranger came up to me and shouted, 'Got to do something about that bush, girl,'" says Mortimer. "Then I got people saying, 'It was so brave of you to grow it' and 'Was it a merkin?' I had that it was earthy to not be that bothered, then my husband told me that actually, it wasn't that sexy." Then she added " Frankly, I'm bored by talking about pubic hair or a lack thereof. Just as I don't find Brazilian waxes "creepy," I don't find a lack of one offensive. It seems to me that the argument should be dead and buried by now: People simply have different tastes when it comes to bikini-area grooming."
The screenplay has an autobiographical slant in that Nicole Holofcener has an adopted black brother. Catherine Keener's character has an adopted black sister in the film.
Emily Mortimer was Nicole Holofcener's first choice for the neurotic sister Elizabeth. Amanda Peet auditioned for the role, but Holofcener would later work with Peet on Please Give (2010).
In its widest release, this played at only 175 theaters.
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