John Carpenter brought real "homeless folks" into the production for several scenes and smaller characters and gave them food as well as paychecks. "I thought that was a pretty classy thing to do," said Roddy Piper.
It was Roddy Piper himself who came up with the now famous one-liner "I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum". According to director John Carpenter, Piper had previously written the line in his notebook of potential verbal bits during his wrestling career. He shared the notebook with Carpenter, and they agreed that this particular line fit the character and the film perfectly. Piper went on to use it at a wrestling match.
The big fight sequence was designed, rehearsed and choreographed in the back-yard of director John Carpenter's production office. The fight between Nada (Roddy Piper) and Frank (Keith David) was only supposed to last twenty seconds, but Piper and David decided to fight it out for real, only faking the hits to the face and groin. They rehearsed the fight for three weeks. Carpenter was so impressed he kept the scene intact, which runs five minutes, twenty seconds. Years later on the documentary, In Search of Darkness: A Journey Into Iconic '80s Horror (2019) David recounted the event, smiling giddily as he said, "It was good fun! I never felt safer in any fight," as Piper, a professional wrestler, coached David on how to sell the look of the punches and savage moves in exaggerated form, making it appear more brutal than it actually was.
Roddy Piper, being a married man at the time of filming, refused to take his wedding band off. That's why in several scenes you can see a wedding ring on.
John Carpenter was impressed with Keith David's performance in The Thing (1982) and needed someone "who wouldn't be a traditional sidekick, but could hold his own." To this end, Carpenter wrote the role of Frank specifically for David.
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