Isabelle Adjani is reported as saying: "Possession is only the type of film you can do when you are young. He [Zulawski] is a director that makes you sink into his world of darkness and his demons. It is okay when you are young, because you are excited to go there. His movies are very special, but they totally focus on women, as if they are lilies. It was quite an amazing film to do, but I got bruised, inside out. It was exciting to do. It was no bones broken, but it was like, 'How or why did I do that?' I don't think any other actress ever did two films with him."

Sam Neill has commented on the rigors of filming: "I call it the most extreme film I've ever made, in every possible respect, and he asked of us things I wouldn't and couldn't go to now. And I think I only just escaped that film with my sanity barely intact".

Star Sam Neill once cited Possession as his personal favorite of all the films he'd ever been in.

This film was heavily censored for its US release, and banned in the UK.

Reportedly, writer-director Andrzej Zulawski has said that he penned the film's screenplay during the divorce he was going through at the time with actress Malgorzata Braunek.