On the advice of Sam Raimi, the Coens went door-to-door showing potential investors a two minute 'trailer' of the film they planned to make. They ultimately raised $750,000 in a little over a year, enough to begin production of the movie.
The original video version of Blood Simple couldn't get the rights to use The Four Tops song "It's the Same Old Song" (which essentially became the theme for the film). It was instead replaced with the Neil Diamond cover song of "I'm a Believer." Later DVD and Blu-ray releases restore the Four Tops song.
Joel Coen and Frances McDormand first met when she auditioned for the part of Abby. They married after the release of the film.
Despite being pretty warmly reviewed and remembered, the Coen Brothers both declared this as their worst film when interviewed for the 2000 book "My First Movie: Twenty Celebrated Directors Talk About Their First Film," with Ethan Coen calling it "crude, there's no getting around it" and Joel Coen saying "I think it's pretty damn bad!"
Holly Hunter: voice on Maurice's answering machine. Hunter had auditioned for the role of Abby but turned it down because she was performing a play in New York at the same time. So she encouraged her roommate Frances McDormand to go and audition for the role.
Shannon Sedwick: the lower part of her legs are seen playing "the stripper." Sedwick founded the musical comedy troupe Esther's Follies, and has become a matriarch of Austin, Texas's theatre community. She is best known in recent years for her musical portrayal of Hillary Clinton.