Several scenes were filmed at the Ramsey County Correctional Facility in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA which is a working correctional facility. While filming in the jail, Woody Harrelson asked for the air conditioning to be turned off. This request was denied due to the inconvenience that it would place on the officers, staff, and inmates of the facility.
The film being advertised at the theater, Umberto D. (1952), is a drama about the disadvantages of an elderly man and his dog, semi-similar to this film.
Derek Cianfrance was at one point attached to direct the film before dropping out to direct Une vie entre deux océans (2016).
Judy Greer said a comment from the film's director, Craig Johnson, made her decide never to film sex scenes again. When it came time to rehearse for her sex scene with costar Woody Harrelson for their film, Wilson, Greer made it a point to get into it. "I'm gonna really do my full performance here for this rehearsal so everyone knows what I'm gonna do," Greer recalled to PEOPLE of how she hyped herself up for the scene. But as Greer quickly found out, she might have gotten herself a little too hyped. After the rehearsal, Johnson walked over to her and cautioned, "I don't think she's that into it." "And I was like, 'Oh my gosh, never again. I'm so embarrassed. I'm so mortified.'"
In the scene where Pippi attacks Wilson with her large purse by the lake; that was filmed at Lord Fletcher's on Lake Minnetonka.