* CastTheExpert: George Hornedo, who plays Roman, also served as an unofficial consultant as he was a former National Spelling Bee finalist himself.
* InspirationForTheWork: Doug Atchison first had the idea of making a film about spelling bees after watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee of 1994 and noticing that most of the contestants had "privileged backgrounds". Atchison also considered spelling bees to contain "all the drama and tension and entertainment value of a sporting event", and felt that this could be made into a film.
* HostilityOnTheSet: During her hosting stint on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' in 2022, Creator/KekePalmer revealed during her monologue that she had a habit of {{Corpsing}} during filming and it aggravated Creator/LaurenceFishburne to the point he eventually yelled at her, which in turn led to Palmer's mother yelling at ''him''.
* StarMakingRole: For Keke Palmer. Her performance in the movie rose her to fame.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The filmmakers initially considered Creator/SidneyPoitier to play Dr. Larabee before deciding they wanted someone younger, and then selected Creator/LaurenceFishburne.
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