Director Luca Guadagnino stated in a video for Vanity Fair that the fringe in Maren's hairstyle came directly from the haircut of a character from Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991). The character in question is Stacy Hubka (played by Lauren Roselli).
During production, the film's crew were burglarized. The Cincinnati City Council with the mayor's support ultimately provided $50,000 in security costs.
Luca Guadagnino (Italian) was fascinated by Americans' love for corn but, not being American, didn't know how to incorporate it. So in the grocery store scene where Maren and Lee meet, you can see a random display of corn in a metal basket as Lee leads the man out.
Maren's birth certificate says that she was born in Menomonie, WI. Wisconsin was the home of famous cannibal and serial killer, Jeffery Dahmer. Wisconsin is also where Ed Gein was from, another famous serial killer who was accused of cannibalism (though he denied this).
Most of the film's ensemble have collaborated with director Luca Guadagnino in the past: Timothée Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg on Call Me by Your Name (2017), Jessica Harper on Suspiria (2018) and Chloë Sevigny on We Are Who We Are (2020). Francesca Scorsese, who worked with Guadagnino on We Are Who We Are, was originally announced as part of the main cast but does not appear in the final film; she does receive a special thanks credit.