In an early draft of the script there was going to be a romance but Temple herself was adamantly opposed to this as she has never had romance.
Julia Ormond's Emmy for this film is on permanent display at the Center for Autism and The Developing Brain in New York. She had given it to Eustacia Cutler whom she plays in the film on the 19th November 2010 and then they both presented it to the Center on the 8th of May 2016 to honour all mothers who raise children on the autism spectrum.
Temple's line about wanting her life to have meaning and not wanting her thoughts to die with her is what she said to the neurologist Oliver Sacks who wrote an article called An Anthropologist On Mars about her in The New Yorker.
HBO bought a herd of cows for the cattle scenes in this movie.
Claire Danes and Temple Grandin spent a half-day lunching and visiting in Danes' New York City apartment as part of Danes' research.