Trivia / Tough Guys Don't Dance

• Box Office Bomb: Budget, $5 million. Box office, $858,250.
• Creator Killer: Writer Norman Mailer dabbled from time to time in filmmaking, mostly outside of the mainstream. This film, based on his novel of the same name, got a generous budget and was apparently intended to establish Mailer's appeal with general audiences, but its negative critical reception and financial underperformance promptly put a stop to that. His literary career continued to be praiseworthy, but his cinematic one now is ignored.
• Irony as She Is Cast: The preacher Big Stoop was portrayed by outspoken atheist Penn Jillette.
• Star-Derailing Role: This damaged the careers of Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, and Debra Sandlund, whom all earned Razzie nominations for their performances.
  • O'Neal, an A-list star in The '70s thanks to Love Story, What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, and Barry Lyndon, never fully recovered from the backlash his infamous performance in this film ("OH GOD, OH MAN!") got. However, he managed to land a recurring role in the '00s as Temperance Brennan's father on Bones.
  • Rossellini, daughter of director Roberto Rossellini and actress Ingrid Bergman, made a big splash in 1986 with Blue Velvet, but her hype was dented the next year after this film, along with Siesta, were ill-received. Her career was in flux for the next few years, before she recovered slightly following her supporting role in the financially successful Death Becomes Her.
  • Sandlund previously starred in bit parts on television, with this film intended to be her Star-Making Role. After its failure, she has continued working on television in a similar capacity. Currently, she's semi-retired and runs an acting studio with her daughter in Georgia.
• Throw It In!: When Ryan O'Neal gave a poor reading of the infamous "OH GOD, OH MAN!" line, Norman Mailer, over the protests of various people, including O'Neal himself, decided to keep it in the movie, because he felt it added something to the picture. It certainly did, alright.

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