Clint Eastwood said about himself acting in this movie about aging in an interview: "You get to a certain age, you're just glad to be there. You have to be a realist so you try to look for roles that are within the age range you are in. It would be kind of ridiculous if I wanted to play a thirty-five-year-old guy. I've enjoyed the journey to this stage and I intend to enjoy the rest of the journey."
Baseball coordinator Aimee McDaniel said of working on this movie: "We worked with Amy Adams for four or five days, and by the end of that time, she looked like she'd been catching baseballs her whole life. To have an actress of that caliber just throw herself into something like that made my job easy. And the rest of the cast was equally devoted."
Clint Eastwood originally hinted that Gran Torino (2008) would be his final acting role (although he would continue to direct). The filmmakers got him to change his mind and come out of acting retirement to star in this movie.
The close-ups of of a young Gus Lobel (Clint Eastwood) in a flashback were from footage taken from the Eastwood movie Firefox (1982).
In an interview, Clint Eastwood said of what it was like being directed as an actor by Robert Lorenz: It was horrible, I had to listen to everything he said. Robert and I have worked together for almost twenty years now. We've talked about him directing over the years, so when he showed me this script, I thought it was a perfect opportunity. I had no doubt he'd do a terrific job, and he absolutely did."