Uma Thurman and Maria de Medeiros were the first actresses to portray the real life characters of June Miller (nee Smith) and Anaïs Nin in a cinema movie. Fred Ward was the third actor to play Henry Miller in a theatrical feature film after Rip Torn had portrayed him first in Tropic of Cancer (1970), and then Andrew McCarthy second in "Quiet Days in Clichy" [Jours tranquilles à Clichy (1990)] which also debuted in the same year as this film but earlier in 1990.