Trivia / To Live and Die in L.A.

• Awesome, Dear Boy: Why William Petersen took the role; he loved the idea of playing a rule-breaking Rabid Cop. This also happened during the shoot; before filming the sequence where Chance runs atop the airport people-mover, the facility's police told the crew not to do the proposed stunt as such a thing in an airport is an illegal violation. However, Petersen REALLY wanted to do it as he felt Chance would in pursuit of a suspect; they quickly did the stunt as soon as the police left the area.
• The Danza: John Pankow as John Vukovich.
• Darkhorse Casting: The film's meagre $6 million budget meant that it couldn't attract big name stars.
• Deleted Role: Kristy Swanson was cast in a small role in the film, but her scenes got deleted in the final cut. Swanson has said she played a daughter of one of the main characters and her scene consisted of opening the door of her house to Willem Dafoe and having a short conversation with him.
• Enforced Method Acting: During the wrong-way chase scenes on the Los Angeles freeway, Vukovich's panicky reactions were genuine. According to the DVD Commentary, this was more in effect when Petersen was driving instead of the stunt double.
• Fatal Method Acting: Averted, but not for lack of trying: the major chase scene in the middle of the film, the one which has all of the crazy stunts including driving the wrong way down a major L.A. freeway? It was the very last thing filmed, just in case a stunt went wrong and any of actors died.
• Throw It In!: When Chance was slamming the briefcase against the pillar, it wasn't supposed to break open. When it did, and the phone book to simulate its weight in money sprung free, Petersen continued to roll with it.
  Chance: That's real funny. [hurls phone book at agent]
• What Could Have Been:
  • Gary Sinise had originally auditioned for the part of Chance. When he was denied the role, he recommended William Petersen to William Friedkin. Jeff Bridges, Richard Gere and Harrison Ford were also considered.
  • Miles Davis was approached by the producers to compose the score for the film but due to a busy schedule he turned down the offer.
  • As early as the day he cast Petersen, Friedkin thought about killing off Chance towards the end of the film, but according to editor Bud Smith, Vukovich was supposed to be the one who was killed. The climactic scene in which Chance is killed was not very well received by MGM executives, who found it to be too negative. To satisfy the studio heads, he shot a second ending, in which Chance survives the shotgun blast and, presumably as an internal punishment, he and Vukovich are transferred to a remote Secret Service station in Alaska, and watch their boss, Thomas Bateman, being interviewed on television. Friedkin previewed the alternate ending and kept the original. In fairness, Chance in the book also dies, at the very end rather than in the middle of the third act, so Friedkin's decision to kill Chance off wasn't that far off, he simply changed it to happen a bit earlier that in the novel, and changed the killer. In the book, it's Chance's informant who shoots him after getting tired of his abusive ways.

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