Tom Cruise did his own trick shots for the film, except for one in which he had to jump two balls to sink another. Martin Scorsese said he could have let Cruise learn the shot, but it would have taken two extra days of practice, holding up production and costing thousands of dollars. The shot was instead performed by professional players Andrew Ghiatsidis & Michael Sigel.
Paul Newman says the best advice director Martin Scorsese gave him, especially in humorous scenes, was: "Try NOT to be funny."
Martin Scorsese has said that this is the only film he has directed that came in under schedule and under budget.
Creators of an up-and-coming software company were looking for a name for their revolutionary new video game. They got it from the scene in which Tom Cruise walks into the pool hall and is asked what's in the case that he's carrying. His answer: Doom.
In the novel that the film is based on, Fast Eddie plays in a tournament against Minnesota Fats, who was played by Jackie Gleason in L'Arnaqueur (1961). But Martin Scorsese wanted to take the film in another direction. Paul Newman and Gleason wanted Fats to return in the sequel so the character was written into a new draft of the script, but Gleason felt that the character did not fit into the new story and declined to reprise the role.
Martin Scorsese: In the Atlantic City casino, the man walking a dog on a leash. The dog is Scorsese's dog Zoe, credited in the closing credits as "Dog Walkby."