Trivia / The Girl on the Train

• Ability over Appearance: Rachel is decidedly unattractive in the book, and Emily Blunt is probably too pretty to play her. This however is rendered moot by the fact that she is Emily Blunt - and delivers a very believable and dramatic performance.
• Actor Allusion:
  • That same year, Rebecca Ferguson had been the other woman in Florence Foster Jenkins.
  • Trains helped Emily Blunt cope with depression in Sunshine Cleaning as well - though in that film she liked going under them instead of riding on them.
• Creator Cameo: Paula Hawkins filmed a cameo that ended up cut.
• Fake American:
  • Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson as Anna.
  • Welsh actor Luke Evans as Scott.
• Follow the Leader: As nearly every reviewer pointed out, this is very much in the Gone Girl style, and also bears some similarities to Before I Go to Sleep; namely, it's also a Psychological Thriller set in the suburbs, with a troubled female protagonist who is at times an Unreliable Narrator. Tropes Are Not Bad, however.
• Hide Your Pregnancy: Emily Blunt was five months pregnant by the end of filming, so some tricks had to be used to hide the bump. Filmmakers initially didn't know she was pregnant until filming a scene of Rachel showering, when they saw the bump.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Emily Blunt was pregnant playing a woman who couldn't have children. Further Irony - her first pregnancy happened while she was playing another barren woman.
• Playing Against Type: To a smaller extent, Luke Evans. He had gained attention for starring as a heroic action star in various fantasy films like Immortals, Dracula Untold, The Three Musketeers (2011), Clash of the Titans (2010) and The Hobbit trilogy. Here he's in a gritty drama playing an emotional abuser.
• Production Posse: Allison Janney has worked with director Tate Taylor on four other projects - The Help, Get on Up, Pretty Ugly People and the short Chicken Party.
• Referenced by...: Robot Chicken: A sketch from "We Don't See Much of That in 1940's America" spoofs the film. In this sketch, Megan and Scott Hipwell's kiss is interrupted by something that Scott finds creepy. Megan asks Scott if it's the way Rachel Watson spies on them from inside a train every day, but rather, Scott is referring to the engine, who is revealed to be Thomas the Tank Engine. Thomas then tells Megan and Scott, "Don't mind me!", then laughs and makes faces at them.
• Similarly Named Works: There are at least two other films called The Girl on the Train: a French film from 2009, and an American film from 2013. Take care when ordering online.
• Star-Making Role: This, coupled with The Magnificent Seven (2016), has essentially brought Haley Bennett into the public eye after mostly acting in supporting roles or obscure indie films.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kate Mara was attached for a while in the role of Megan, but dropped out and was replaced by Haley Bennett.
  • Jared Leto and Chris Evans were originally announced to play Scott and Tom respectively, but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Had they played the characters, it would've served as Playing Against Type for them.