Trivia / Body Heat

• Breakthrough Hit: For Lawrence Kasdan as a director.
• Cast the Runner-Up:
  • Mickey Rourke was considered for Ned Racine, but was deemed more suited to the role of Teddy Lewis.
  • Kim Zimmer (Mary Ann) was considered for Matty Walker.
• Darkhorse Casting: Prior to this, Kathleen Turner had acted mainly in theatre.
• Deleted Scene: The film's screenplay originally contained a failed first murder attempt. This sequence was actually shot but was cut out because it was felt it slowed down the movie's pace. However, footage from this botched attack was merged with filmed material from the successful kill, to form the one successful job on the husband in the movie. If one looks closely, one can see the design on the bedsheets is different—footage from the first crack used tighter shots so that this would not be noticed.
• Edited for Syndication: At least one commercial television print, for some reason, completely eliminates the key sequence where Richard Crenna's character is killed.
• Irony as She Is Cast: More like "irony as location/weather". The film is set in steamy, muggy Florida, and was filmed there—but it was freezing. All that "sweat" is actually water sprayed on the actors.
  • Also, Richard Crenna plays the victim here, and the movie is definitely a modernized take on "Double Indeminity." What makes the casting ironic is that Crenna played Walter Neff in a 1973 television remake of the 1940s classic, and thus played the killer in the remake, and the victim in this second proxy remake.
• Real-Life Relative: Lawrence Kasdan's wife Meg has a cameo.
• Star-Making Role: For Kathleen Turner.
• Uncredited Role: George Lucas was executive producer, mainly as a favor for Kasdan's help with the script for Return of the Jedi. Lucas went uncredited because he didn't want his work on an erotic thriller film to affect his family-friendly reputation from the first two Star Wars films.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Kim Basinger, Sylvia Kristel, Mimi Rogers, Debra Winger and Sigourney Weaver were considered for the role of Matty Walker
  • Christopher Reeve was offered the role of Ned Racine, but turned it down after saying, "I didn't think I would be convincing as a seedy lawyer." Tom Berenger, Kevin Costner, Don Johnson and Kevin Kline were turned down.
  • Jeff Goldblum was considered for the role of Peter Lowenstein; he would go on to have significant roles in Kasdan's next two films, The Big Chill and Silverado.

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