Audrey Hepburn was offered the role of a Japanese bride opposite Marlon Brando but turned it down. She explained that she "couldn't possibly play an Oriental. No one would believe me; they'd laugh. It's a lovely script, however I know what I can and can't do. And if you did persuade me, you would regret it, because I would be terrible."
According to Turner Classic Movies, Marlon Brando insisted on playing Ace Gruver with a Southern accent, against the will of the director and producers. Brando adopted a nondescript Southern accent for Gruver, despite the objections of director Joshua Logan, who didn't think that a general's son who was West Point-educated would speak that way.
In 1956, more than 10,000 American servicemen had defied regulations and married Japanese women, as indeed had the novel's author, James A. Michener.
According to Turner Classic Movies, William Holden was originally slated to play Ace Gruver, but left the project to film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).
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