The movie was still in the process of fundraising when the date of production start, which Schrader had given to stars Willem Dafoe and Susan Sarandon, arrived, so Schrader financed the first three weeks of pre-production from his own money. "Light Sleeper" was the first artistic collaboration of Willem Dafoe and Paul Schrader, who met during filming of Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ". Dafoe and Schrader later collaborated in "Affliction" (1997), "Auto Focus" (2002), "The Walker" (2007), "Adam Resurrected" (2008) and "Dog Eat Dog" (2016).