Writer and director Chloé Zhao first met Brady Jandreau during her research for her earlier film, Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015). She visited the ranch where Jandreau was working and he was teaching her how to ride a horse. She wanted to put him in one of her films, and when he had the accident that left him with life changing head injuries, she decided to base the script for her next film on his story.
The character Brady Blackburn is based on actor Brady Jandreau, who suffered the kind of head injury shown in the film after a fall from a horse.
Brady Jandreau is married to Terri Dawn Pourier (the woman he smokes weed with in the truck) in real life and have a daughter together.
Brady, his father, & his autistic sister, Lilly, are all really a family. Zhou chose to make this movie based upon a real-life accident that Brady had.
The film was made on a budget of $80,000 dollars.