Lance Rome who played Ruth's lover, was not a professional actor and was picked up out of a bar by the director to act in the film.
Diane Ladd, Laura Dern's real-life mother, plays her mother in the film.
The "ASK ME" pin worn by Kurtwood Smith in the hardware store shows up again in Alexander Payne's following film, Election (1999).
Ruth purchases Patio Sealant, at the hardware store, to huff (inhale) rather than spray paint (as originally scripted; non-fictional counterpart M. Greywind's personal preference). This revision was at the direction of Miramax lawyers, insisting they change it to something else to sidestep any likely controversy later. Taylor said they set on patio sealant, since it was a solvent not available in aerosol spray.
This movie marks the reunion of Laura Dern and Burt Reynolds in a theatrical movie. The 1970s Reynolds movie McKlusky, metà uomo metà odio (1973) had been Dern's uncredited film debut. Dern was just six years old when she appeared in a brief non-speaking walk on bit part. In McKlusky, metà uomo metà odio (1973), Dern played the daughter of her real-life mother Diane Ladd who played Maggie. This time around in La storia di Ruth - Donna americana (1996), it is Dern who has the main part with Reynolds playing a supporting role.