John Sayles has described this film as a probe of "what people do when they think they're on one life path and then it gets blown in another direction".
The "Passion Fish" myth that Rennie tells appears nowhere in Louisiana lore and is completely a creation of director John Sayles.
Of Rennie's five children (seen coming out of a grocery store with him when May-Alice and Chantelle drive by), three are the children of the mayor of the small Louisiana town where the movie was shot, another is his niece, and the fifth is the small daughter of one of the movie's makeup artists.
Actress Mary McDonnell prepared for her role as the wheelchair-bound May-Alice by attending physical training and hospital sessions with counselors and real paraplegics. She had to do this while she was concurrently filming Sneakers (1992).