According to the site Slate, after playing family friendly roles for years, Dakota Fanning decided to her first controversial role as Lewellen in this film. The part of the Elvis fanatic included some very mature scenes, such as the horrifying rape of her character. The reviews at the time noted the public backlash of the role, and as Slate wrote, "Protesters of the film may be genuinely concerned that acting out a rape scene in a film is traumatic to Fanning." Fanning didn't take too well to her critics. She lashed out in a press conference in Los Angeles (via Today), "When it gets to the point of attacking my mother, my agent ... my teacher, who were all on the set that day, that started to make me mad ... They hadn't seen the movie." At the end of the day, the young, but seemingly mature beyond her years starlet felt she was leading audiences to harrowing discussions worth talking about. In an interview with The New York Times, Fanning, at just 12 years old, mused, "There are so many children that this happens to, every second. That's the sad part. If anyone's talking about anything, that's what they should be talking about."

The 45 rpm record that Lewellen's father gave her in the truck (supposedly by Elvis on RCA) is apparently a reissue of an original which did not exist at the time.

The film has a 2008 copyright date in the credits, despite first being shown in early 2007.

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Roles Too Mature for Child Actors (2019)