According to a poll for movie subscription service LoveFilm, Sharon Stone's infamous leg-crossing scene has been named the most-paused "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" moment in movies.

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According to Sharon Stone, director Paul Verhoeven asked her to remove her underwear for the leg-crossing scene, as he said they were too bright and reflected at the camera. Stone agreed to do so under the assumption that her genitals weren't visible. It was only at an early preview that Stone discovered Verhoeven chose to use this specific shot. Stone was mainly cross with Verhoeven for not discussing the matter with her beforehand, but decided to let the scene go without changes, as she felt this conformed with her movie character. However, Verhoeven's version of the conflict is that he told Stone beforehand about the leg-crossing shot, as it was important for showing Catherine Tramell's free-spirited nature and her constant drive to toy with people. Stone was reportedly excited about the idea and shot the scene. However, during the early preview, her agents supposedly disproved of the scene, fearing it would harm her future career. According to Verhoeven, Stone radically changed her mind about the shot and demanded that he remove it, which he ultimately refused.

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The main sex scene with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone took five days to film.

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Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone had to wear genital pads during the sex scenes due to the AIDS epidemic.

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Michael Douglas felt an established star was needed to play Catherine, so the movie would be carried by two well-known actors, and the risk of career damage would also be shared. He suggested Julia Roberts for the part, but no actress of name was prepared to go completely nude for the role. Douglas was initially against Sharon Stone being cast as she was largely unknown, despite her supporting role in Total Recall (1990), but Paul Verhoeven desperately wanted her, since he had been very impressed by her screen test.

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Joe Eszterhas wrote the script in ten days while listening to The Rolling Stones non-stop. He then sold it three days later at auction.

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Paul Verhoeven shot copious amounts of footage of the sex scene between Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone. Expecting that the MPAA would have problems with the explicit nature of the scene, he shot alternate close-ups, medium shots and wide shots of virtually every shot over 10 days. This gave him the freedom to edit the scene until the MPAA was satisfied and no longer demanded that the scene was deleted altogether.

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The movie completely ignored DNA, which had been used in criminal investigations since the mid-1980s. The film was set in the year of its release (1992), by which time DNA was constantly being used for crime investigations.

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The character Nick was originally supposed to be a young man, but after Michael Douglas was cast his age was described in the script as 42 (Douglas was actually almost 47).

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Nick Curran is based on an adrenaline-junkie Cleveland police officer Joe Eszterhas knew when he was a crime reporter with the "Cleveland Plain Dealer".

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Film debut of Jeanne Tripplehorn.

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The San Francisco Police Department had to deploy 50 riot police at every location every day to deal with picketing gay and lesbian activists.

Paul Verhoeven was so intent on making the sex scenes as explicitly as the censors would allow, that he showed the study executives very detailed storyboards depicting what he had in mind, as to avoid later discussions about the graphic nature of the love scenes.

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Writer Joe Eszterhas and producer Irwin Winkler walked off the picture after failing to reach agreement with director Paul Verhoeven over the script. Verhoeven promptly hired Total Recall (1990) writer Gary Goldman to come up with some new scenes, most of which beefed up Michael Douglas's character and made him less wimpy. These changes were largely made at the behest of Douglas. It was during this later stage that Verhoeven realized his changes weren't going to work, so he publicly acknowledged his error and made up with Eszterhas (which Eszterhas admitted to be a rare thing in Hollywood). Problems reoccurred later when the script had been leaked, and the gay and lesbian communities had serious reservations about the depiction of lesbian and bisexual characters. Eszterhas wanted to make more changes to appease them, but Verhoeven point blank refused to incorporate these changes. Eszterhas again publicly distanced himself from the production, but once again reconciled with Verhoeven when the finished movie was praised by critics and homosexual communities alike.

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Harrison Ford, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, John Heard, Tom Hanks, Charlie Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Sylvester Stallone, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Al Pacino, Christopher Lloyd, Martin Sheen, Nicolas Cage, Dennis Quaid, Jeff Bridges, John Travolta, Richard Dean Anderson, Don Johnson and Chuck Norris were considered for the role of Nick Curran. Richard Gere was also considered and would later work with Sharon Stone on Intersection (1994). Wesley Snipes was offered the role but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Denzel Washington was also offered the role but turned it down.

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Wesley Snipes was offered the role of Nick Curran but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts. Denzel Washington was also offered the role but he turned it down. Richard Dean Anderson and Don Johnson were also offered the role.

The disco scene was felt by many to be inappropriate given the respective ages of the two stars. The disco was intended for young people, but Sharon Stone was in her mid-30s and Michael Douglas was in his late 40s.

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Catherine's last name comes from Alan Trammell, the longtime star shortstop for the Detroit Tigers. Sharon Stone discovered that a trammell was a Scottish death shroud and complimented Joe Eszterhas on his subtlety with the choice, not believing the truth.

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One of the main points of disagreement between Paul Verhoeven and Joe Eszterhas concerned Verhoeven's wish to include a lesbian love scene between Catherine Trammell and her lover Roxy, as he considered a movie that only mentioned bisexuality without showing bisexual love to be overly puritan; Eszterhas considered adding such a scene to be sensationalism. Verhoeven made some attempts but found that the scene ruined the movie's pace, so he abandoned the idea. The only remnant of the scene in the movie is when Catherine and Roxy passionately kiss after Nick angrily leaves Catherine's apartment.