The onscreen chemistry between Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis was genuine. They were in the midst of a year-long relationship while filming this movie.
Christian Slater became physically ill several times during filming due to all the cigarette smoking he had to do.
Writer-director Allan Moyle described the movie's protagonist and central character of Mark Hunter (played by Christian Slater) as an amalgam of Lenny Bruce and Holden Caulfield.
A Jamie Portman article, 'Movie Views Cruel World of Today's Teenage Angst,' mentions: "The school in the film, Hubert Humphrey High, was based on a Montreal high school where director Allan Moyle's sister used to teach that, according to Moyle, had a principal 'who had a pact with the staff to enhance the credibility of the school scholastically at the expense of the students who were immigrants or culturally disabled in some way or another.'"
First of three collaborations of actress Samantha Mathis and actor Christian Slater. The pair later went to to star in two other film projects together: Broken Arrow (1996) and FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992).