About Schmidt

Warren Schmidt

Roberta Hertzel

Jeannie Schmidt

Randall Hertzel

Helen Schmidt

Larry Hertzel

John Rusk

Vicki Rusk

Ray Nichols

Duncan Hertzel

Saundra

Minister in Denver

Gary Nordin - Warren's Replacement

Randall's Best Man

Bridesmaid Reading St. Paul

Man Mourning Helen

Woman Mourning Helen

Neighbor Lady (scenes deleted)

Priest in Omaha (as Reverend Robert Kem)

Dairy Queen Employee

Frat Kid

Other Frat Kid

Bartender

Tire Store Employee (as Stephen Heller)

Native American Cashier

Funeral Director

Six-year-old Jeannie

Twelve-year-old Jeannie

Wedding Singer #1

Wedding Singer #2

Chuck Woodard (uncredited)

Partygoer #1 (uncredited)

Angela Lansbury (voice) (uncredited)

Bartender (uncredited)

Male shopper (uncredited)

Surly Denver Neighbor Taking Trash Out (uncredited)

Bus boy (uncredited)

For the role of Roberta Hertzel, Shirley Jones was considered but lost the part to Kathy Bates.

The exterior shots of the "fraternity house" are of the actual Delta Delta Delta house at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

A scene that echoes Jack Nicholson's famous diner scene in Five Easy Pieces (1970) (his exchange with the waitress) was in an early cut of the movie in which Schmidt concedes in a cowardly fashion to the dictates of the waitress. Though the preview audience went wild over it, director Alexander Payne cut it from the final film because he felt that the scene was too much of a pointed reference to Nicholson's iconography and that something so referential took the audience out of the film.

When Warren Schmidt leaves Roberta Hertzel's house to go and sleep in his RV, the RV is noticeably tilted to the right due to its being parked on the side of the street. When he is inside, it is perfectly level.

Scenes showing the University of Kansas are obviously not filmed in Kansas. The real Kansas buildings have red roofs with beige brick.

The seasons change back and forth, between winter and summer. Sometimes the trees are bare, but in the next scene, they're full again. At the beginning of the movie, the trees are bare and it's gray and cold. Yet, two weeks later he leaves on his trip and it's summer all of a sudden.

Warren Schmidt: You're not gonna believe this. We had a tire swing over there.

Roberta Hertzel: You already know how famously they get along as friends, but did you know that their sex life is positively white hot? The main reason both of my marriages failed was sexual. I'm an extremely sexual person, I can't help it, it just how I'm wired, you know, even when I was a little girl. I had my first orgasm when I was 6 in ballet class. Anyway, the point is that I have been always very easily aroused and very orgasmic, Jeannie and I have a lot in common that way. Clifford and Larry, they were nice guys, but they just could not keep up with me. Anyway, I don't want to betray Jeannie's confidence, but let me just assure you that whatever problems those two kids may run into along the way, they will always be able to count on what happens between the sheets to keep them together. More soup?

Warren Schmidt: Helen, what did you really think of me, deep in your heart? Was I really the man you wanted to be with? Was I? Or were you disappointed and too nice to show it? I forgive you for Ray. I forgive you. That was a long time ago, and I know I wasn't always the king of kings. I let you down. I'm sorry, Helen. Can you forgive me? Can you forgive me?