Ability over Appearance: Rose was first written as an overweight girl. Nancy Savoca however loved Lili Taylor's audition so much, she was given the part anyway (although see below).
Actor-Inspired Element: Lili Taylor was meant to gain more weight to make Rose heavier. But she found herself unhappy with the extra weight, and suggested that Rose not be too heavy to suggest that it was more about the boys' perceptions.
Her being fat or whatever, that’s not as interesting as our ideas of beauty and how narrow they are, and how they’ve changed through the times, and not changed, and so on.” So I said to Nancy, “Why don’t we make it more about that?” So she’s a little heavy, but it’s believable for this dogfight. Why don’t we say more about the guys’ perceptions? And I think we did. We were also able to justify, because she was a little overweight, that’s why she was picked, her being a little overweight and it being down to the 11th hour. So that’s what I find more interesting about it, was the definition of beauty.
California Doubling: Although the film takes place in San Francisco, it was actually filmed in Seattle.
Creator Breakdown: River Phoenix was already dealing with alcoholism, and his problems were exacerbated by him being unable to separate himself from his character. He was more of a hippie at heart, and it was completely against his personality to play a marine.
River Phoenix, Richard Panebianco, Michael Whitfield and Anthony Clark had to do a week's boot camp with military advisor Dale Dye to prepare. They also had to get high and tight haircuts.
Lili Taylor gained twelve pounds to play Rose. She was however wearing padding underneath her clothes as well.
Executive Meddling: Nancy Savoca faced the studio trying to get her to recut the movie to make it more PG, closer to a teen comedy.
Fake American: Brendan Fraser (Canadian) has a role as an American sailor.
Production Posse: Nancy Savoca directed Lili Taylor again in the movie Saints.
Real Life Writes the Hairstyle: Naturally the film required River Phoenix to get a high and tight haircut. But Warner Bros found the resulting style too unflattering, so they requested he be given highlights to soften his appearance.
Throw It In!: The scene where Eddie runs down the street after leaving Rose was only thought up at the last minute when the crew noticed the skyline. River Phoenix was just told to run, and laughed throughout the whole scene because of it.
The musical adaptation:
Those Two Actors: The original Eddie and Rose, Derek Kiena and Lindsey Mendez, starred together in Wicked as Fiyero and Elphaba respectively the same year.
