John Travolta became interested in the part and briefly acted in it before getting "cold feet" and being replaced by Gere. This is not the only role that Travolta has turned down only to be taken by Gere: it had happened with "Days of Heaven" (1978) and occurred again when Travolta was offered the lead in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) and "Chicago" (2002). Paul Schrader had threatened to sue Travolta if Richard Gere wasn't cast in the film knowing that Travolta had his eye on the script of another Paramount production "Urban Cowboy" (1980). Gere's brief nude scenes marked the first time a major Hollywood actor was frontally nude in a film. According to Gere, the nudity was not in the original script.