- Cast the Runner-Up: Robert De Niro was offered the role of Dr. Sayer. Penny Marshall told him that he was the glue of the movie. He replied, "Let someone else be the glue, I want the glitter".
- Creator Backlash: The film was based on the real life memoirs of Oliver Sacks. While he did enjoy many parts of the film, in particular Robert De Niro's acting and replication of the condition, he did feel other elements were simplified or sentimentalised too much.
- Throw It In!: The famous shot of Lowe isolated on a rock off the beach was improvisation, partly because of the crowds that had gathered to watch filming. It worked out as a visual metaphor for Leonard still being isolated from Dr. Sayer and the world.
- What Could Have Been:
- Penny Marshall at first wanted Bill Murray to play Leonard Lowe, who was interested in the project, but she decided against it because she didn't want audiences expecting a comedy.
- Robert De Niro wanted Shelley Winters to play his mother. However, the studio insisted that she read for the part first. Winters refused to do so and when she met the casting director, she reportedly put both her Oscars on his desk and said, "Some people think I can act". The story is apocryphal, however, since one of her Oscars was sitting at the Anne Frank House at the time.
- At one point, this was a film Steven Spielberg considered directing, before passing it on to Penny Marshall. The time he spent on the project did yield one useful outcome for him: Steven Zaillian's script took several short chapters, each about different patients, and put them together into a linear whole. This brought Zaillian to Spielberg's attention, and he offered Zaillian the similar task of adapting Schindler's List, which ended up winning Oscars for both of them.
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