Trivia

The owner of the circus at the beginning mentions the Hagenbeck-Wallace wreck and the Hartford fire. On June 22, 1918, a troop train crashed into the Hagenbeck-Wallace circus train after the driver fell asleep. The crash killed 86 people and injured 127. On July 6, 1944, a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey big top circus tent caught fire during a performance in Hartford CT, killing 169 people and injuring over 700.

Sara Gruen wrote the novel "Water for Elephants" as part of National Novel Writing Month.

Hal Holbrook had been recently widowed in real life when he filmed his scenes.

Almost all of the circus wagon carts that appeared in the movie were the original carts from the Ringling Brother's shows. During production, the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin shipped its circus carts to California to be used for filming. As of late, they are all now back in their original display building.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus began in 1871, and ended its 146-year run on May 21, 2017, at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.