Rachel Talalay cast Lori Petty in the lead role because "she is crazy in her own life and [the film] needed somebody like that."
Malcolm McDowell has spoken favorably of his experience working on the film, saying it had the "same flavour" as A Clockwork Orange (1971), and praised Rachel Talalay and Lori Petty.
Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett, the creators of the Tank Girl comic have since spoken poorly of their experiences in creating the film, calling it "a bit of a sore point" for them. Hewlett said, "The script was lousy; me and Alan kept rewriting it and putting Grange Hill (1978) jokes and Benny Hill jokes in, and they obviously weren't getting it. They forgot to film about ten major scenes so we had to animate them ... it was a horrible experience."
Ice-T recalled one interview on a hip-hop show where the host made fun of him for doing Tank Girl. He replied "I was paid $800,000 for that movie". The host moved on.
MGM insisted on cutting a scene of Tank Girl and her kangaroo boyfriend Booga reclining after sex, despite spending $5,000 on a prosthetic penis for Booga.