While viewing a scene during production, Demi Moore so disliked the way her hair looked that she insisted the scene be re-shot, at her own expense.
Demi Moore reportedly said she was fine with changing the ending, because "not that many people have read the book." (She wasn't aware that millions of students are assigned to read this in their high school English class, apparently). After the movie bombed at the box office, shops in Concord, Massachusetts, began selling t-shirts that read, "'Not that many people have seen the movie.' - Nathaniel Hawthorne."
Composer Elmer Bernstein reportedly wrote a letter to Demi Moore thanking her for rejecting his music score for this movie, so that he could use it to score a better movie. Moore was involved in getting John Barry to write the final score, because she wanted a score like the one he did for the romantic, and very successful Out of Africa (1985).
Demi Moore's real-life daughters, Scout and Tallulah, played infant Pearl and little Pearl, respectively.
Listed among The 100 Most Amusingly Bad Movies Ever Made in "The Official Razzie® Movie Guide".