After completing this film, Jane Fonda took a fifteen year hiatus from acting until Monster-in-Law (2005).
According to the book "Final Cuts: The Last Films of 50 Great Directors" (2013) by Nat Segaloff, Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro were each paid $3.5 million for their performances. Director Martin Ritt received $1.65 million, and screenwriters Harriet Frank Jr. and Irving Ravetch received $500,000.
For around a decade, the manuscript for the source novel was rejected by publishers as being too "bleak and depressing."