Trivia

Billy Wilder once told Billy Bob Thornton that he was "too ugly" to be an actor, and that he should write a screenplay for himself, where he could exploit his "less than perfect" features. After this movie launched Thornton's career, he publicly discussed his conversation with Wilder, which was at a cocktail party where he was working as a waiter. He got a call from Wilder, who invited him over to his house. Wilder said he didn't recall their conversation, but was glad that he heeded his advice. As a gift, Wilder gave Thornton a paperback copy of this movie's script with his autograph, and a personal message inscribed on it.

When the film was in pre-production, Billy Bob Thornton envisioned John Ritter's character as having dyed blonde hair, thinking that Vaughan was a man who was transferred out of St. Louis for his job, where the film was set, and based his hairstyle on what he saw men sporting in GQ Magazine. Thornton, Ritter, and the film's hairstylist began experimenting with hairstyles on Ritter at the hotel where the cast and crew stayed. According to Thornton, Ritter was insistent that the hairstyle wasn't too drastic, as he had to go back to Los Angeles to shoot a Public Service Announcement. But when the hairstylist came up with, and applied the hairstyle that Ritter's Vaughan character would sport in the film, Thornton immediately approved. However, when Ritter finally got a look at his hair in the hotel room's bathroom mirror, he was infuriated at Thornton. Thornton said that when Ritter went back home to shoot the Public Service Announcement, he was wearing a baseball cap.

In order to make his walk more awkward and consistent, Billy Bob Thornton placed crushed glass in his shoes.

Billy Bob Thornton said he wrote the role of Vaughan Cunningham specifically for his good friend John Ritter.

Linda, Frank's mother, never has a close up; she's almost always sharing the screen with someone else in either a long or medium shot. This illustrates how ignored and passed over she feels. Everyone knows she's trapped in an abusive relationship but no one is helping her.

Karl was named after Billy Bob Thornton's special needs cousin, who died a month before Billy Bob wrote the movie.

In the audio commentary, Robert Duvall reveals that Karl's father is talking to an imaginary dog named Bullet when Karl walks in.

Lucas Black didn't expect that Billy Bob Thornton was going to ad-lib a certain line about potted meat, and genuinely laughed as a result. That moment made it into the finished film.

Karl says "alright then" nineteen times.

Cameo by Colonel Bruce Hampton Retired, of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Code Talkers during Doyle's band scene. Colonel Bruce is the tambourine player, and can be seen blowing his trademark "Smokeless Smoke Ring" in a close-up shot.

The lawnmower repair shop where Karl is employed was actually a real repair shop in the town of Benton, Arkansas.

Harvey Weinstein, then co-chairman of Miramax, only saw the first thirty minutes of this movie when he agreed to pay $10 million for the rights to the film. He later regretted this, and forced Billy Bob Thornton to cut about twenty minutes from the movie.

Billy Bob Thornton was the runner-up for Best New Filmmaker in the Film Critics Awards.

The movie is filmed entirely in the Saline County town of Benton, Arkansas.

Billy Bob Thornton and Lucas Black played football eight years after they do in this movie, as Coach Gary Gaines and Quarterback Mike Winchell in Friday Night Lights (2004).

Terence is played by musician Vic Chessnutt, who wrote several songs with and recorded an album with Widespread Panic, whom Billy Bob Thornton is a fan of. One song Chessnutt wrote with Panic is Aunt Avis, which Billy Bob Thornton directed the music video for.

Billy Bob Thornton won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for this film on the same night Joel and Ethan Coen won Best Original Screenplay for Fargo (1996). Almost eighteen years later, Thornton would go on to play the lead villain on Season 1 of FX's TV adaptation of Fargo (2014).

Billy Bob Thornton and Robert Duvall appeared in The Apostle (1997), Jayne Mansfield's Car (2012), and The Judge (2014).

Vaughan (John Ritter) is holding a copy of the book "A Confederacy of Dunces" in his final scene. The book revolves around a Southern character that is unable to fit into society.

In his autobiography "The Billy Bob Tapes", Billy Bob Thornton had become good friends with John Ritter when they were shooting the sitcom Hearts Afire (1992). This friendship inspired Thornton to cast Ritter as the first person in his film. According to Thornton, his first scene with Ritter was in the café when Vaughan (Ritter) tells Karl (Thornton) that he's gay. Thornton said that none of the film's cast had watched him in character as Karl. So when he got into character, Ritter burst out laughing, as he thought Thornton was joking. Thornton explained that it was the character, an explanation which Ritter said was going to be difficult for Ritter to act, as he knew Thornton too well. Thornton said they were able to shoot the scene, but its difficulty was due to Ritter trying to keep a straight face throughout the shoot.

As in this movie, Dwight Yoakam's character is killed by Billy Bob Thornton's character in Don't Look Back (1996).

Billy Bob Thornton played two different bit parts in Evening Shade (1990), starring Burt Reynolds. James Hampton played the prison warden in this movie. He starred with Reynolds as Caretaker in The Longest Yard (1974).