Between takes and when not filming, lead actor David Bowie composed songs, sketched drawings, wrote short stories, planned an autobiography to be titled "The Return of the Thin White Duke", filmed on a 16mm newsreel camera that director Nicolas Roeg had given him, and read books, including a biography of silent film comedian Buster Keaton. This was in preparation for a biopic of Keaton, whom Bowie was to play.
Toward the end of the film, in the record store, Bryce walks past a display for David Bowie's "Young Americans" album.
Still shots from the production were used as the cover art for two David Bowie albums - 1976's 'Station to Station' and 1977's 'Low'.
Candy Clark, with a large black hat strategically pulled low over her face, played Thomas Jerome Newton in one scene while David Bowie was ill and unavailable to work the day it was shot.