The apartment building where Wanda's apartment was located was an actual building where Charles Bukowski and his lover Jane Baker Cooley, the real-life counterparts to Henry and Wanda, had lived. No one knew this until Bukowski, who was watching the filming, remembered.
The first Kino Flo (professional LED-based lighting equipment) unit was created in 1987, during the filming of this movie. Director of photography Robby Müller was filming in a cramped interior and couldn't fit traditional lights into the location. In order to work around the problem, the film's gaffer Frieder Hocheim and best boy Gary H. Swink designed a high-output fluorescent light that had a remote ballast, allowing the lamp unit to be sufficiently small and lightweight to be taped to the wall. Hochheim and Swink subsequently created a company, Kino Flo Incorporated, to manufacture and market their innovation to the film industry. The new lights were quickly embraced by cinematographers and now are considered a staple of a standard motion picture lighting package.
In its obituary of Charles Bukowski, The New York Post used a photo of Mickey Rourke as Henry Chinaski in this film instead of a photo of the poet himself.
The film was shot using authentic locations around Los Angeles, including all the shots in the bar, the exteriors, and the apartments.
The names of the night clubs, cocktail bars, and drinking establishments seen, particularly in montages that bookend the picture, were Firefly, Boulevard Inn, Ski Room, Catelina Cocktails, The Elbow Inn, The Golden Horn, Craby Joe's, Smog Cutter, Frady Hank, The Sunset, Silver Platter, Side Show, Snug Harbor, The Hollyway Cocktails, and Oasis (aka Club Oasis).