In an interview from 2005, David Carradine said that Corman had advised him not to do "Deathsport": "He was right too. I knew it the moment I saw the picture. He warned me and I didn’t listen. He was determined not to pay anybody, except me. He didn’t want to put any money into it. He paid me what I was worth back then – this was right after the Ingmar Bergman picture – and that was pretty much the whole budget of the movie."