1. The movie came thisclose to never happening.
Because, actually, Harling never intended to be a playwright, earning a degree at Tulane University Law School before following his acting dreams to New York City. After his beloved younger sister got sick and passed away, however, he was inspired. "I wrote it to somehow get this true story off my chest and to celebrate my sister in the process," he told The Huffington Post in 2014.
Like Shelby, he told Garden and Gun, Susan's diabetes meant bearing kids could be life-threatening: "But she wanted a child, she went ahead and had a child, and then, sure enough, her metabolism started to fail—circulatory system, kidneys, the whole thing. It was much grimmer than I portrayed in the play."
Initially he intended to write a short story, in part to share with his nephew one day to explain what happened to his mom. But a few pages in, he felt he wasn't accurately capturing the women's dialogue, so he switched course. Within 10 days, he'd scribbled out an entire play.
2. The names were also based on a true story.
Shelby's mother M'Lynn (Field) was taken from a close friend. Shelby was the name of one of his mother's cousins. Clairee (Dukakis) "a fabulous aunt" and Ouiser (MacLaine) from his sister's best friend: "She in no way resembled the character," he said of the town curmudgeon. "But there was just something about the name that fit." Personalities were also lifted from the people he grew up with in Louisiana. "I've never told a living soul who Ouiser is based on," he shared, saying he was willing it might offend. But when people came to see it, "Lo and behold, every woman in town was saying, 'He based Ouiser on me.'"
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