Mickey Rourke remembers that he approached his character as "an actor who no longer finds his work interesting."
To mix the black-and-white footage of Rusty James and the Motorcycle Boy in the pet store looking at the Siamese fighting fish in colour, Stephen H. Burum shot the actors in black and white and then projected that footage on a rear projection screen. They put the fish tank in front of it with the tropical fish and shot it all with colour film.
The sound technicians on the film had a hard time hearing Mickey Rourke's dialogue on set, often asking him to speak louder. As a result, the sound crew referred to the production as "Mumble Fish."
The name Rusty James is said at least 50 times in the movie. That is approximately once every two minutes.
S.E. Hinton: Author of the novel the film was based on has a cameo role in the film as a prostitute.