To Live and Die in L.A. Behind The Scenes

When Chance jumps on top of the moving walkway in the airport while chasing John Turturro, that caused a lot of problems with the airport. They had warned Friedkin and Peterson that they were not allowed to do that stunt because it was too much of a liability, Peterson asked Friedkin if he could do it anyway and Friedkin said all right but that he would have to do it in one take. He pulled it off, and they were nearly thrown out of the airport.

At the beginning of the movie, Willem Dafoe is making counterfeit bills. A convicted counterfeiter was brought on the set to show him how it is done. Dafoe claimed that he did have a chance of getting arrested by police during the process.

Dafoe actually painted the painting he burns at the beginning, Friedkin sent him to paint with some German artist during preproduction.

The production manager's son was detained at a supermarket for passing off one of the phoney 20 dollar bills, and the secret service began investigating the entire production and hassling Friedkin--luckily Gerald Petievich was a long time veteran of the service and helped them wade the waters.

The cars in the film were rented from various L.A. county law enforcement agencies: The beige Chevrolet and two Dodges came from the LAPD, the midnight blue Plymouth came from the U.S. Treasury, the silver Malibu came from the California Highway Patrol, the black Malibu came from the L.A. county sheriff and the blue Pontiac came from the Orange County Police. The car William Petersen drives in the chase is a 1985 Chevy Impala F41 from the Los Angeles Police Department. The chase takes place on the 710 freeway which extends from downtown L.A. south to Long Beach. Peterson was actually driving the getaway car for 90f the chase.

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