In preparation for her role as Loretta Lynn, Sissy Spacek accompanied the singer on one of her tours in order to study her on/offstage mannerisms.
Sissy Spacek's Best Actress Oscar win for playing Loretta Lynn created a rarity in the Academy's history in that the real-life Loretta Lynn was in the audience witnessing the victory. That same evening, boxer Jake LaMotta was in the pavilion audience when Robert De Niro won the Best Actor statuette for his portrayal of LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), making the event even rarer.
Loretta Lynn is said to have fainted when she saw Levon Helm in full makeup and wardrobe, because of his amazing resemblance to her real father.
According to Loretta Lynn, her husband Doolittle wanted nothing to do with Tommy Lee Jones, who was playing him, until shortly before shooting began in Butcher Holler. Jones rented a Jeep, got drunk on moonshine,and went tearing through the town in the vehicle, only to get arrested for drunk driving, beat up for resisting arrest and jailed. Doolittle liked him immediately after that.
Sissy Spacek was reluctant to take on the lead role, instead favoring a project by Nicolas Roeg. She had insisted on doing her own singing for the film in hopes of scaring the producers off. The real Loretta Lynn prematurely announced that Spacek was going to play her on a talk show, so Spacek was torn between the decision to star in the film, or choose the other project. She was advised by her mother-in-law to pray for a sign on what to do that evening, which she did. Spacek later went for a drive with her husband in her mother's car, where the radio was tuned into a classical music station that changed formats every evening. As the car pulled out of the parking garage, "Coal Miner's Daughter" by Loretta Lynn came on the radio. Spacek then accepted the role.