FILM · 1983 · USA
Silkwood
39 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (39)
- #001
The scene in which Karen sets off the radiation alarms really happened. The contamination level was forty times the safe limit.
- #002
The film's posters carried the following preface: "On November 13, 1974, Karen Silkwood, an employee of a nuclear facility, left to meet a reporter from the New York Times. She never got there."
- #003
An autopsy performed on Karen Silkwood's body found plutonium contamination in several organs. A lawsuit followed, lasted several years and ended in a $1.3 million out-of-court settlement.
- #004
Both Cher and Meryl Streep received Oscar nominations for this film, but they were nominated in separate categories (Supporting/Lead Actress). In 1988 they were again nominated, this time in the same category, for Best Actress in a Leading Role (for "Moonstruck" and "Ironweed"). When Cher won the award, the audience gave her a standing ovation, and Streep was the first to jump to her feet in delighted applause. In her acceptance speech, Cher chose "Mary Louise Streep" to thank.
- #005
In the scene where the factory workers listen to the union doctor talk about cancer and Winston fans himself with something folded like an accordion, the paper booklet containing facts about plutonium had actually been distributed in factories across the United States.
- #006
The plutonium plant where Karen Silkwood worked was the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site, located near Crescent, Oklahoma. The picture, however, was not shot in Oklahoma. In fact, the Governor of Oklahoma told one of the producers that he would appreciate it if filming took place elsewhere, and they chose Texas.
- #007
The scene that was especially difficult for Meryl Streep was the one in which Karen shows her breasts to her co-workers while on the job. It was a "very awkward" kind of scene, she said: "Because I'm always very sensitive about women doing nude scenes. It's a personal grievance. I did it because in context I thought she probably would do something like that. It made sense. But it's still a completely strange and terrible thing to do in front of a crew."
- #008
One of the first big tasks Cher had to take on when she arrived was finding the right look for her character, Dolly. Originally, according to Cher, Dolly was written as a "glamorous barrel rider." They tried Cher's screen test with that look, but Mike Nichols didn't like it. Nichols told Cher to wash her face, then wash her hair and let it dry on her head without doing anything to it. He and costume designer Ann Roth then began dressing her in frumpy clothes, working hard to strip away all the glamour of the usually depicted perfect star. "They were merciless with me until I was wearing a terrible bowling shirt, awful chino pants and two pairs of jockey shorts underneath to make me look heavier," said Cher. "When I came out in my new costume, Kurt Russell said: 'What's happening to you?' I ran to the back bathroom, where the only mirror in the house was, in tears and cried my eyes out."
- #009
The film's epilogue says: "The exact circumstances of Karen's death are unknown. It is also unknown whether she had any documents with her. None were found. The autopsy revealed high levels of the sedative Methaqualone and some alcohol in her bloodstream. Oklahoma police ruled her death a single-car accident. A year later the plant was closed."
- #010
In an interview with Joan Rivers on The Tonight Show, Cher said she was shocked that Mike Nichols offered her the part opposite acting legend Meryl Streep in only his second film. "You want me to go up against Meryl Streep? Shouldn't I start smaller, with something like Suzanne Sommers?"
- #011
This film, along with the previous year's Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982), was what established Cher as a serious actress. Both roles were ensemble/supporting parts that paved the way for much bigger leading roles in the 1980s such as Mask (1985), Suspect (1987), Moonstruck (1987) and The Witches of Eastwick (1987).
- #012
Meryl Streep hated shooting her topless scenes in the film so much that she vowed never to do them again.
- #013
It was Nora Ephron's first feature film screenplay (co-written).
- #014
There were only two and a half weeks between Meryl Streep finishing the shoot of Sophie's Choice (1982) and starting principal photography on this film.
- #015
The film was nominated for five Academy Awards but won none of them.
- #016
20th Century Fox held a premiere in Oklahoma City, inviting several executives from Kerr-McGee, the nuclear facility depicted in the film. Only one person attended, and he rejected the film on the grounds that it was overly dramatized.
- #017
Silkwood is the only film in which Meryl Streep can be seen nude. In one scene she teases a male co-worker and actually exposes herself to several co-workers, briefly showing one breast clearly. In another scene she gets out of bed in a dark room to put on her shirt and appears topless in front of the mirror for a short time. All her other films that show one of her characters nude used a stand-in.
- #018
Jane Fonda, who had recently starred in the thematically related film The China Syndrome (1979), once owned the film rights to this film.
- #019
The first of three films Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron made together. The films are Silkwood (1983), Heartburn (1986) and Julie & Julia (2009); the second is the only one Ephron directed.
- #020
The first of four films Meryl Streep and Mike Nichols made together. The films include Silkwood (1983), Heartburn (1986) and Postcards from the Edge (1990). The pair also collaborated on the television production Angels in America (2003). According to a current PBS report on genealogy, Nichols and Streep turned out to be ironically distant relatives.
- #021
The third of three consecutive films for which Meryl Streep was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, following The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and Sophie's Choice (1982). As of 2018, this was the only time she was nominated for an Oscar after being nominated the two previous years. She won the Best Actress award for Sophie's Choice.
- #022
Executive producers Larry Cano and Buzz Hirsch began working on the film while they were graduate students at UCLA.
- #023
This is the only time Mike Nichols was nominated for the Best Director Oscar for a film that was not also nominated for Best Picture.
- #024
It was shot largely in New Mexico and Texas.
- #025
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2001 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Most Heart-Pounding American Films.
- #026
All of the scenes set in Los Alamos are interior scenes. There is no recognizable footage of the national laboratory or the town.
- #027
David Strathairn, who shares scenes with Meryl Streep, was to play her husband in The River Wild (1994).
- #028
It was included in the American Film Institute's 2004 list of 400 films nominated for the 100 Best American Film Music list with the song "Amazing Grace."
- #029
The film features three Oscar winners: Mike Nichols, Meryl Streep and Cher; and three Oscar nominees: Diana Scarwid, Tess Harper and David Strathairn.
- #030
It was Mike Nichols's first major feature film in eight years (excluding the concert documentary Gilda Live (1980)). Nichols's previous film was The Fortune (1975).
- #031
Lily Tomlin auditioned for the role of Dolly.
- #032
Cher directed and starred in If These Walls Could Talk (1996) together with Diana Scarwid, who played her girlfriend in this film.
- #033
Cher and Diana Scarwid would act together again 13 years later in If These Walls Could Talk.
- #034
It began development nine years earlier at Warner Brothers as a possible project for Jane Fonda. Warners withdrew from the film after producer Buzz Hirsch was summoned to court by a judge in Oklahoma City to disclose the film's research documents.
- #035
It was Anthony Heald's first feature film.
- #036
Meryl Streep and Fred Ward later appeared together in… First Do No Harm (1997).
- #037
One of Tess Harper's first feature films; she also appeared that same year in Amityville 3-D (1983) and Tender Mercies (1983).
- #038
There is no rearview mirror in Karen's Honda.
- #039
At the 59th minute, there is no rearview mirror in the taxi.
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