Nicolas Cage's screen test didn't impress the studio, and they wanted to get someone else to play Ronny. But Cher insisted that Cage was the one to play that role, and threatened to quit unless he was hired. After a few days, the studio relented.
Director Norman Jewison was fined by the actors' union for not allowing his actors to go to lunch until they perfected the moods of their characters for the climax scene in the kitchen.
Norman Jewison has stated that the climactic kitchen sequence was the most difficult scene that he ever shot in his career. The crew were dismissed and Jewison rehearsed with the cast for some time, using a stage production approach. Only after the actors perfected their timing did he decide where to put the camera.
The opening title sequence was originally played on the score from "La bohème" opera but was changed to the Dean Martin track "That's Amore" because the preview drew negative test audience reaction. Many shifted uncomfortably on their seats, thinking that they had been lured into an art film.
John Mahoney later revealed that his role in the film got him widespread attention, helping him get cast in the TV series Frasier (1993).
Catherine Scorsese, Charles Scorsese: Martin Scorsese's parents are customers in the bakery. They appear occasionally in some of Martin's films. (Cape Fear (1991), Goodfellas (1990) for example).