In a 2011 interview with the American Film Institute, Gary Oldman was asked to name his favorite role. He chose two: Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK (1991) and Drexl Spivey in this movie.
Gary Oldman met with Tony Scott about the project, and told him he hadn't had a chance to read the script he'd been sent, then asked Scott what his part would be like. Scott told him "You're playing a white guy who thinks he's black, and you're a killer pimp." Oldman laughed and immediately accepted the role.
Quentin Tarantino named the Sicilian scene as one of his proudest moments. "I had heard that whole speech about the Sicilians a long time ago, from a black guy living in my house. One day I was talking with a friend who was Sicilian and I just started telling that speech. And I thought: 'Wow, that is a great scene, I gotta remember that'."
Director Tony Scott gave Patricia Arquette the purple Cadillac as a gift after shooting wrapped, as the Ford Futura she was driving at the time kept on breaking down (Patricia Arquette recounts this in the 2002 DVD commentary).