Chris Evans had a panic attack while auditioning for the movie. He was brought back to audition a second time and had a second panic attack and still remembers the experience as one of his worst auditions.
The filming of this movie convinced Seth Rogen he needed to lose weight, after it became hard for him to breathe in the harsh New Mexico air.
The movie was filmed around the same time as Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009). Despite the comparisons, the cast and crew of both films kept in touch with each other during production to avoid making the movies too similar. In an interview with GQ, Seth Rogen claimed that the idea for Paul Blart: Mall Cop was stolen from Observe and Report.
Warner Brothers was concerned about the dark subject matter and demanded the production team come up with a "lighter, softer" version of the film. It was not until test audiences gave the edited version poorer test scores than the original version that Warner Brothers let them release the film in its original form.
During the filming of a fight scene, Seth Rogen broke a stuntman's nose by accidentally hitting him in the face.
Lauren Miller Rogen: Seth Rogen's wife as another employee at the coffee shop in which Nell works. She can be seen during the sequence in which both she and the manager make fun of Nell and Ronnie assaults the manager in the kitchen.