Samuel L. Jackson had just undergone treatment for drug addiction, and had only two weeks from his discharge from rehab to the start of filming. Jackson has gone on record as saying that Gator's ravaged look was not make-up, but actually the result of Jackson's own detoxification.

According to Bill Lee, Spike Lee's father, the film is a result of Spike's anger at Bill, for marrying a white woman shortly after Spike's mother died.

Halle Berry refused to bathe for two weeks in preparation for her role as a crack addict.

John Turturro wrote many of his own lines, which Spike Lee incorporated into the script.

The Cannes Film Festival introduced the Best Supporting Actor Award specifically to honor Samuel L. Jackson. Previous honorees in the same category are Jack Thompson in Breaker Morant (1980) and Sir Ian Holm in Chariots of Fire (1981).