UK distributor Hamish McAlpine dropped the film after Larry Clark punched him in the face at a celebratory dinner.
The screenplay is based on newspaper clippings, tabloid television stories and Larry Clark's diaries. Clark first tried to write the screenplay himself but couldn't come up with anything satisfactory. It was then going to be written by a professional screenwriter before Clark finally commissioned Harmony Korine.
The tennis match during the auto-erotic asphyxiation scene is stock footage and sounds were dubbed over to make it sound more suggestive.