Styron's novel Sophie's Choice was made into a motion picture in 1982, starring Meryl Streep as the survivor of Nazi concentration camps and Kevin Kline as an American Jew obsessed with the Holocaust.

Styron has a bit part as an actor in the 1994 comedy Naked in New York.

Styron's daughter, Susanna Styron, directed the 1999 film Shadrach, adapted from one of her father's short stories. The film stars Andie MacDowell and Harvey Keitel and was released by Columbia Pictures.

Dick Cavett interviewed William Styron on PBS in 1979. The tape is available from the Public Broadcasting System.