Adam Driver's performance of Stephen Sondheim's "Being Alive" from the 1970 Broadway musical "Company" was recorded live and done in one take.
The script is based largely on Noah Baumbach's own experiences when he and Jennifer Jason Leigh divorced in 2013. According to Baumbach, Leigh read the script, has seen the film, and likes it.
Laura Dern's character is loosely based on Los Angeles celebrity attorney Laura Wasser, who represented Dern, Scarlett Johansson, and Noah Baumbach during their respective divorces. Mediation scenes were filmed in Wasser's actual office building.
When Noah Baumbach approached Scarlett Johansson to join the film, unbeknownst to him Scarlett was actually going through her second divorce.
Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Laura Dern were cast before the script was complete. The cast collaborated with writer/director Noah Baumbach on certain character aspects.