Spalding Gray had previously been in another film about a South East Asian conflict: "The Killing Fields" (1984), which documented the genocide from the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
In an interview between McDormand and Willem Dafoe for Bomb magazine, McDormand explained why she joined the film. She explained, "I didn't choose Beyond Rangoon because of the character I played. It was the classic supporting role, she had no other life other than the support she gave to Patricia Arquette's lead character. But I got to work with Boorman, whose movies I love, and I got to go to Malaysia."
Cinematographer John Seale and Composer Hans Zimmer, previously worked together on Rain Man (1988).