A fire on the set in Nova Scotia, Canada, caused one million dollars damage.
While filming the scene on the ferry between Dolores and Selena, Jennifer Jason Leigh became seasick. A student from the local high school was pulled out of class to act as a stand-in.
Castle Rock bought the rights to Stephen King's novel for $1.5 million.
In preparation for her role, Ellen Muth wrote in a journal as her character in the movie for weeks before shooting the film.
The ferry at the end of the movie is called the "Joshua Slocum", named for the first person to circumnavigate the globe alone.
Dolores Claiborne:
If you say you're sorry one more time, I'll K I C K your butt up so high you'll look like a hunchback.
Dolores Claiborne:
It was just a bad patch.
Selena St. George:
I had a fucking nervous breakdown, mother!
Dolores Claiborne:
[to Joe] That is the last time you ever hit me! Next time, one of us is going to the bone yard.
Dolores Claiborne:
If you wanna know what kind of life a person had, just look at their hands.
Selena St. George:
[to her boss, Peter] So not only are you not fucking me now, you're fucking me.
Dolores Claiborne:
[to Selena, who is frantically taking pills] How is that going to help?
Selena St. George:
Because in ten minutes, I'm gonna be fine.
Dolores Claiborne:
Selena...
Selena St. George:
JUST GIVE ME TEN MINUTES!
Vera Donovan:
[to Dolores, who is hanging her sheets to dry] Six pins, Dolores! Six pins, not five!
Dolores Claiborne:
Go ahead and take what you want. I ain't doin' any beauty pageants today.
Dolores Claiborne:
Now, you listen to me, Mr. Grand High Poobah of Upper Buttcrack, I'm just about half-past give a shit with your fun and games.
Dolores Claiborne:
I didn't kill that bitch any more than I'm wearing a diamond tiara.
Vera Donovan:
Sometimes you have to be a high-riding bitch to survive. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold onto.
Vera Donovan:
It's a depressingly masculine world, Dolores.
Vera Donovan:
Don't you just love the Bosa Nova. I found them in New York and simply had to have them.
Vera Donovan:
Sometimes Delores, an accident can be an unhappy womans best friend.
Vera Donovan:
Don't we have a hair across our ass this morning Delores Claiborne?
Vera Donovan:
Well, don't look to me, Dolores. All my money is tied up in cash.
Dolores Claiborne:
You must have boyfriends. Beautiful girl like you, smart and out in the world... You tellin' me there's nobody?
Selena St. George:
I'm telling you there's a *lot* of nobodies.
Dolores Claiborne:
[sobbing] Why? Why'd you do this, Vera?
Vera Donovan:
Because I hate the smell of being old.
Const. Frank Stamshaw:
Going on a morning walk?
Dolores Claiborne:
No, I'm just packing the get-away boat, so I can make my great escape.
Vera Donovan:
I want my china pig!
Dolores Claiborne:
Which one? There's only about two-hundred of 'em.
[Vera is not letting Dolores change her soiled sheets]
Dolores Claiborne:
Vera, are ya gonna sit there and maranade in it? Come on!
Vera Donovan:
[Vera is ringing a bell] Doloooress!...
Dolores Claiborne:
Hells bells. Look who's up.
Dolores Claiborne:
We're gonna sit down and have ourselves a drink! And after we're done - after *I'm* done, you can run upstairs and take whichever one of them little pills makes you feel the best.
Selena St. George:
Eighteen years ago, my father drank a bottle of scotch and fell down a well. Detective Mackey didn't think it was an accident, which is... why we're here today.
Det. John Mackey:
And what do you think, Selena?
Selena St. George:
I think I owe you an apology. I called you a son of a bitch. You said you thought we were a lot alike, and you were right. We both spent the past 18 years prosecuting this woman. We came out here- I know I did- believing she was guilty. We forgot this case is about Vera Donovan. Not my father.
Det. John Mackey:
And what if it wasn't an accident?
Det. John Mackey:
Look. It's been 18 years. I don't know what this has done to you, but let me tell you, it's consumed me. I have lived with this every day of my life. Every day. I was wrong and I won't do it any more. And if I can say that, my God, can't you?
Vera Donovan:
[Dolores is crying in front of Vera in the drawing room] I insist that all women who have hysterics in my drawing room call me by my Christian name.
Vera Donovan:
Husbands die every day, Dolores. Why... on is probably díing right now while you're sitting here weeping. They die... and leave their wives their money. I should know, shouldn't I? Sometimes they're driving home from their mistress' aparment and their brakes suddenly fail.
Selena St. George:
[when leaving her mother] I'm sorry, Mother. Sometimes being a bitch is the only thing a woman has hold onto.
Dolores Claiborne:
[to Detective Mackey] The last time you were sorry was when you had to use the pay toilet and the string on your pet dime broke.
Const. Frank Stamshaw:
Selena, we'd like her to stay at her house for the next few days.
Dolores Claiborne:
If I decide to make my grand escape to South America, I'll be sure to let you know first.
Vera Donovan:
Husbands die every day, Dolores. Why... one is probably dying right now while you're sitting here weeping. They die... and leave their wives their money. I should know, shouldn't I? Sometimes they're driving home from their mistress' aparment and their brakes suddenly fail.
Kid on street:
Hey Dolores!
Kid on street:
Kill anyone lately?
Dolores Claiborne:
Not just yet, when I change my mind I'll know exactly where to start!
Dolores Claiborne:
If anyone is going to accuse me of killing my husband go right ahead and call me Dolores!
Errors in geography: Phone shows the area code 902 (filming location Nova Scotia), not that of Maine.
Continuity: A scene shows Dolores driving the night before a total solar eclipse. The scene shows a full moon, which is impossible since a full moon cannot occur less than 14 days before a total solar eclipse.
Anachronisms: The full moon is clearly visible over the bay on Dolores' drive home from Vera's house. This is less than 36 hours before a total eclipse of the sun. The moon is at New Moon phase during an eclipse (between the Earth and Sun) and not Full (Earth between the Moon and Sun).
Continuity: When Selena telephones Peter, the cuffs on his sleeve alternate between being open and being fastened.
Crew or equipment visible: After the brief shot of Dolores turning over her glass on the tabletop and booze dripping out, it slowly dissolves into a shot of clouds, then a pan of the shoreline to reveal the St. George house. During that pan, a portable toilet is very visible. A company in Nova Scotia rents a model that is blue with a bright yellow roof - exactly what you see in the scene. That's a fairly distinctive color scheme, which arguably makes this a geographic goof as well.
Continuity: In the first flashback of Vera falling down the stairs, her back hits the railing, but in the second flash back, when they show what really happened, her back is facing Dolores, who is standing at the top of the stairs.
Crew or equipment visible: As Delores and Selena are leaving the police department, they walk across the street and get in the car. As Selena opens the door, the telescoping crane can be seen reflected in the car window.
References
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Dolores tells Joe that he's going to have "a long stay in Shawshank prison", for what he's done to Selina.
Referenced in
"Storm of the Century" (1999) (mini)
Secret Window (2004)
- Another filmed Stephen King story where a character looks into a mirror and sees the back of their own head.
Miracles and Mystery: Creating 'The Green Mile' (2006) (V)
- mentioned once