Before the movie started shooting, Michael J. Fox was still keeping his Parkinson's disease a secret. He felt he would lose the role if Rob Reiner found out. During a basic and routine fitness screening, Fox was terrified that clinicians would detect the periodic shaking in his left hand and eventually connect it to Parkinson's. Fortunately for Fox, he took his medication in time to quell the shaking and the test amounted to nothing more than checking heart rate and blood pressure.
President Bill Clinton and his staff granted permission for the cast and production design team to visit the White House on five occasions.
Camp David is strictly off-limits to the public and the media. Production designer Lilly Kilvert used someone's personal snapshots from the Richard Nixon era, and a lot of imagination, when designing the set.
Robert Redford, whose Wildwood Productions co-produced the film, was originally cast in the lead role, but was replaced with Michael Douglas after a falling out with Rob Reiner. Redford, however, remained on board as a producer.
The telephone number President Shepherd gives Sydney to call him back (456-1414) is in fact the number to the White House (area code 202).