Director Mike Nichols, screenwriter Nora Ephron and star Meryl Streep worked together so well that they all collaborated again on the 1986 film Heartburn based on Ephron's roman a clef about the demise of her marriage to Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein.

In addition to Heartburn Meryl Streep went on to star in two more projects directed by Mike Nichols: Postcards from the Edge (1990) and the highly acclaimed television adaptation of Tony Kushner's epic play Angels in America (2003).

Nora Ephron both wrote the adapted screenplay for and directed the popular 2009 film Julie and Julia which starred Meryl Streep in one of her most memorable roles as Julia Child.

In 1993 Silkwood co-screenwriter Nora Ephron told Rolling Stone magazine: "One of the biggest surprises you have when you come to screenplay writing from journalism, as I did, is that film is such a collaborative medium. I was in a state of shock during Silkwood, the first movie I wrote. I couldn't believe what Meryl wanted to wear as Karen Silkwood. And the first day Cher improvised a line, I practically had to take five aspirins."

In 2012 director Mike Nichols had this to say when Entertainment Weekly asked him to comment about Silkwood: "I hadn't made a movie in seven years. It was like I had been asleep. And Meryl's talent woke me up. Three days after we arrived in Texas, Cher was her best friend and Kurt was wildly in love with her. She mysteriously rearranges what's around her so that all the other actors have to do is show up."

In a 1983 interview, film critic Roger Ebert asked Meryl Streep if she had an opinion on what exactly happened to Karen Silkwood. Streep replied, "Yes, I have a definite opinion...But I'm not going to tell you. I think I'd better keep it to myself. There are a lot of legal complications involved with this movie. For example, whenever the movie says that the Kerr-McGee Company did something, it's based on a matter of public record. Otherwise we would have had to change the name of the company, the characters, everything."

The real Karen Silkwood's roommate Sherri Ellis was so upset following her death that she entered the Kerr-McGee plant with a .22-calibre rifle. When she was arrested for the incident, it turned out that the weapon was not loaded. She received a one-year deferred sentence after pleading guilty to forcible entry and possession of marijuana.

In reality, Karen Silkwood lived in an apartment, not a house as portrayed in the film.

The union official Paul Stone portrayed by Ron Silver in the movie whom Karen meets in Washington D.C. was based on a man named Steve Wodka. When he saw the film version of Silkwood Wodka said, "[Karen] was a little more politically aware of what was going on than Streep portrays her. She was a woman who was taking some risks, who was brave. I've always found that very attractive."

In 2009 actress Julia Roberts named Silkwood as one of her top 10 personal favorite movies in Entertainment Weekly. "This movie is so real and right there," she said. "Meryl is sublime and Cher is heaven."

In a 1984 People magazine cover story on Cher, Meryl Streep tells an amusing story about how she and Cher went to Six Flags once during production on Silkwood. "Cher had this pink miniskirt on that was maybe six inches long in the back," said Streep. "And she just blithely walks through the place. I mean, I'd wear a wig, sunglasses and a trench coat. But Cher doesn't mind being the center of attention. It isn't agony for her."

Mike Nichols wrote Cher a note that she proudly displays in her home. It says: "You are a major actress and a great human being. Love, Mike."

When Cher won the Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress in Silkwood she called Mike Nichols "wonderful" in her speech and Meryl Streep "the best friend I've ever had." Kurt Russell, whom she thought of as a brother, she called an "idiot."

According to the film's editor Sam O'Steen, Meryl Streep did her own dishes and laundry throughout the shoot even though she had access to a daily maid service. "She said it kept her grounded," he said in his 2001 book Cut to the Chase.

It is actress Meryl Streep's real voice singing the song "Amazing Grace" in the film.

In his book Cut to the Chase editor Sam O'Steen recounts a story about a mishap involving one of the screenings of Silkwood. "Jackie Onassis was coming to it," he said, "so Mike was even more of a nervous wreck than usual. Well, Jackie O showed up, the movie started running...and there was no sound at all! How could this have happened? It turned out Mike had gotten the projectionist into such a panic, he greased up the projector too much. Oy."

Editor Sam O'Steen was surprised when he received an Academy Award nomination for Silkwood "because that kind of picture doesn't usually get nominated for editing...action is easier to cut than people talking in a room. But most people don't know that."

Actress Sudie Bond, who plays Karen's co-worker Thelma whose daughter is dying of cancer, appeared with Cher in the Broadway production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean in 1982.

In her 1998 book The First Time Cher tells a story about how she managed to make herself sick eating doughnuts on the set of Silkwood. "One morning I was hungry, so I talked the prop man into having Dolly eat an Entenmann's chocolate doughnut while she sat on the front porch. When Mike saw what I had finagled, he said, 'You think this is fun now, but you're going to be sorry.' Kurt Russell told me the same thing...We had to do twenty takes of that porch scene...and I had to start on a new doughnut each time. It was like a bad scene out of Groundhog Day [1993]. Four hours later, I had eaten half or more of two dozen Entenmann's chocolate doughnuts, and I was ready to puke. But it didn't stop me from loving them to this day."

The gravestone shown at the end of the film actually belongs to the real Karen Silkwood. "It's not a fake put up by the prop department," said Meryl Streep in a 1983 interview. "Originally there was some discussion with Mike Nichols, the director, as to whether that might be 'too much,' but this was her life, and that was her stone."

Famous Quotes from SILKWOOD

"I remember in high school her saying, 'Now what'd you want to take that science class for? There's no girls in that science class. You take Home Ec, why don't you? That's the way to meet the nice boys.' 'Mom,' I said, 'There ain't no boys in Home Ec. The boys are in the science class.' She hated it when I said, 'Ain't.'"
-- Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), talking about her mother

"Sweetheart, it's like you're two people. I'm in love with one of them. But the other one is just..."
"A real pain in the ass."
-- Drew (Kurt Russell) and Karen, when they break up.

"You think I contaminated myself. You think I did that?"
"I think you'd do just about anything to shut down this plant."
--Karen and Mace Hurley (Bruce McGill)

"I love you, Karen."
"I love you, too."
"I don't mean I love you, too."
"I know that's not what you mean."
-- Dolly (Cher) and Karen
"Karen, you ever been downtown? There are two big streets. One's called Kerr, and one's called McGee. And that's how I see it. They own the state, they own everybody in the state, and they own practically everybody I work on."
-- Angela (Diana Scarwid)

"I can always tell when a dead person I beautify worked for Kerr-McGee because they all look like they died before they died."
-- Angela

Compiled by Andrea Passafiume