Julie Christie turned the script down the first time it was sent to her. She would do this several times over the course of a year until Sarah Polley's determination wore her down.
Sarah Polley first came across Alice Munro's story when she read it on a flight back from Iceland where she'd been filming Hal Hartley's No Such Thing (2001). Having just worked with Julie Christie, Polley couldn't help but envision the main part of Fiona with Christie playing her.
Sarah Polley adapted the short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" specifically for Julie Christie.
Writer-director Sarah Polley had intended her feature film debut to be based on a script she wrote about a 12-year-old actress starring on a television series. She was unable to get the project green lighted, and turned to another, an adaptation of one of her favorite short stories, Alice Munro's "The Bear Came Over the Mountain". The story deals with a couple in their sixties coping with the wife's Alzheimer's disease.
The movie somewhat mirrored actor Gordon Pinsent's real life, when his wife, actress Charmion King, died of emphysema in January 2007, four months after "Away from Her" premiered.