The football game in the movie was actually a scrimmage between Skowhegan High School and Waterville High School. Most of the extras in the stands were residents of both towns.
On the dvd commentary, Fred Schepisi related a story about filming a scene with 80-year old Paul Newman on a very high ladder: "We always had them connected by safety wire to the ladder in case anything unfortunate happened. But Paul... he didn't want to have that and at one point he was gonna have some fun and hang off the ladder by one arm. And we're all, the stunts people and the effects people, were going 'No, no, no, no, no'. He was gonna go, 'Come on up!' and just hang by one arm to tease his son (played by Ed Harris). And we go, 'Paul, please don't'. Anyways, (Paul said) 'No, I don't need the wires, I don't need the wires', and as he was coming down from a rehearsal with all of us standing at the bottom ready to catch him in case he slipped, on the last three rungs he slipped and shanked his shin. And we got back to his motor home and did a little bit of first aid and he looked at me and he said, 'I guess I just lost my argument, didn't I??'"
Matthew McConaughey was asked to play the young version of Paul Newman's character. He turned it down.
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