Wong Foo, or "Fooey" as his friends called him, was the head bartender at the China Bowl restaurant. It was on 152 west 44th Street east of Broadway and closed in 1993. The walls of the restaurant were covered with head shots of famous actors and actresses who had stopped by the place.
Patrick Swayze earned the role of sage Vida Boheme by improvising a thirty-minute monologue inspired by the bullying he suffered as a boy studying ballet in Texas.
Before filming the scene in which Sheriff Dollard (Chris Penn) pulls the car over at the roadside, Patrick Swayze secretly placed a corn cob down the front of his underwear. Penn's expression of shock upon putting his hand up Swayze's dress was not faked.
The actors spent some time in New York City's drag scene to help get into their roles.
According to John Leguizamo in his autobiography, his frequent improvisation angered Patrick Swayze so much that Swayze tried to punch him in the face.