Hilary Swank began filming this movie five months after her father passed away. Swank's father, Michael Swank, had received a lung transplant in 2015, and Swank put her acting career on hiatus for three years to take care of him as he recovered from the transplant.
Alan Ritchson explained the scene he was nervous to film was the skating scene because he was unfamiliar with skating. He then joked, "Well, Ed couldn't skate, neither could I."
Alan Ritchson chose to be in this film because he was keen to be in a platonic, non-sexual love story about a community being brought together by two people.
Alan Ritchson begged the producers to keep the faith aspect in the film explaining in a promotional interview, "When you're dealing with so much trauma and the problem of pain creeps in, it's to be expected there's going to be some arm-wrestling with God and doubt, and that was very much a part of his journey and it was very important to me because that's the real human experience if we're going to talk about faith; because what is faith if you haven't experienced doubt and you have to answer some tough questions?"
When asked if there was anything that surprised her about making the movie, Hilary Swank immediately responded, "Yes! That Winnipeg could be THAT cold!"