A 14-year-old Nicole Kidman was offered a role in the film, after Jane Campion discovered her at a drama school. This film would have been Kidman's first professional acting, but dropped out because she found the material too explicit. Campion and Kidman would later collaborate on numerous projects, and Kidman once performed a kissing scene from this film at an award show, with Naomi Watts, to state how much she regretted turning this film down.