Stories from the set

The film is based on the novel by Jack Engelhard.

The role of David was offered to Val Kilmer, John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, and Tim Robbins. The role of Diana was offered to Julia Roberts, but she declined.

In Engelhard's novel, the husband is named Joshua, he is Jewish, and his billionaire rival is Arab, and the whole story takes place against the backdrop of a clash of two cultures.

Filming took place from June 15 to October 16, 1992.

Director Adrian Lyne was initially against casting Woody Harrelson in the lead role, but after seeing Harrelson in Ron Shelton's sports comedy White Men Can't Jump (1992), he changed his mind. Harrelson himself said in an interview that he felt awkward acting opposite Demi Moore because he was friends with her then-husband, Bruce Willis.

Director Adrian Lyne and Demi Moore often argued on set about one aspect or another of her character's image, and Woody Harrelson had to act as a mediator. Lyne, in particular, insisted that Moore should show her character's vulnerability, while the actress objected categorically. Only during editing did Lyne suddenly realize that all along Moore had in fact been showing exactly that vulnerability in her character, after which he apologized to the actress.

During the auction, Robert Redford's character was supposed to stand up and leave the room. This scene had to be shot in several takes because Redford kept missing the right moment, having become engrossed in the auctioneer, played by Sir Billy Connolly.

The tears of Demi Moore's character in the flashback scene of Robert Redford's character were as genuine as could be. Before filming began, Moore had no idea what her co-star would say to her.

After reading the script, Demi Moore was not sure she would take the role. She was uncomfortable with the love scenes and the nudity, even though before becoming an actress she had posed for adult magazines. She eventually agreed to the role, but only on the condition that she would be present during the editing of the risqué scenes, and if any of them seemed too explicit to her, that scene would be cut. She found nothing too explicit during editing, deciding that all these scenes could be classified as erotic rather than pornographic.

Halle Berry expressed interest in starring in this film, but she was refused even an audition because the filmmakers feared that her presence in the cast would add an unnecessary racial subtext to the script. In fact, in the original novel by Jack Engelhard that served as the literary source for the screenplay, Redford's character was an Arab and Harrelson's character was a Jew.