The characters "Janet and Bill Williams" are based on Ruth and Michael Paine who, like in the movie, take in Marina Oswald into their home. It was actually Ruth Paine who got Lee the job at the Texas School Book Depository.
Because of Kevin Costner's presence as leading man, one of the film's nicknames prior to opening was "Dances With Facts".
A leaked copy of the script ended up in the hands of The Washington Post who then wrote a lengthy feature entitled "Dallas in Wonderland: Oliver Stone Exploits the Edge of Paranoia".
Mel Gibson also passed on the chance to play Jim Garrison.
24 researchers were involved in the scripting process.
Those are real tears choking up Kevin Costner as he makes his closing summation as Jim Garrison. The weight of what he was saying meant the actor became emotional although the speech was not scripted that way.
Dr M.T. Jenkins, the anesthetist who officially declared John F. Kennedy dead, plays himself in the film. He was genuinely surprised at the level of detail and research that had gone into preparation for that key scene. Even the tiles for the set of Trauma Room One were exactly the same shade of green he remembered (even though the scene itself is black and white in the finished film).
Oliver Stone showed this film in December of 1991 to all of Congress on Capitol Hill. It led to the 1992 Assassinations Disclosure Act
The real Jim Garrison never made the speech that Costner makes at the end of the movie. It was taken from several speeches the he gave and some of it from his book.
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