Originally Halle Berry refused the part in this movie, but said yes when she was offered $1 million for the job. This was her first million-dollar payment for a film.
According to John Leguizamo in his autobiography, his frequent improvisation angered Kurt Russell so much that they got into a shoving match. Leguizamo's improvised line "Hope the smell doesn't give us away." started the fight.
According to John Leguizamo in his autobiography, Steven Seagal physically attacked him during filming, in an effort to scare the cast and crew. Leguizamo claimed that during rehearsals, Seagal had come in and told the cast that "I'm in command. What I say is law." Thinking it was a joke, Leguizamo started to laugh, but Seagal proved him wrong by slamming him against a brick wall with an aikido elbow, knocking all the air out of him and dropping him to the ground. In 2022, Leguizamo confirmed that he "did not have a good time with Steven Seagal. No one has." According to the Observer, Seagal threatened to attack Leguizamo if they ever crossed paths on the Red Carpet after learning Leguizamo had mocked Seagal on his comedy show, "Ghetto Klown." However, Leguizamo wasn't threatened and said of Seagal, "I don't think he's invited to a lot of red carpets."
David Grant is seen taking flight lessons, and is about to go solo. In real life, Kurt Russell is an FAA licensed pilot holding ratings for several aircraft types.
Originally developed at Paramount Pictures, the studio put the project in turnaround, and sold it to Warner Bros. in exchange for the rights and screenplay to Forrest Gump: O Contador de Histórias (1994). Executive Decision was considered a hot project, while Forrest Gump was going through multiple problems with the script and casting. In addition, some Warner executives were afraid that the success of Rain Man (1988) would preempt Gump, due to the perceived similarities of the projects' subject material (both involved lead characters with mental disabilities).