According to Anita Pallenberg, one scene actually shows her shooting heroin, which she was just starting to get into at the time.
Keith Richards was so angry about the sex scenes between Mick Jagger and his girlfriend Anita Pallenberg that he refused to play while The Rolling Stones recorded "Memo from Turner" for the soundtrack. Ry Cooder filled in, giving the song its signature slide guitar accompaniment.
At a test screening in Santa Monica in March 1970, one Warner executive's wife vomited with shock in response to the film and paying customers had to be offered their money back.
The sex scenes between Mick Jagger and Anita Pallenberg upset Jagger's fellow The Rolling Stones member Keith Richards. Richards, who was Pallenberg's lover at the time, was reported to have lurked outside the set in a foul mood. Pallenberg had previously been the partner of another Stones member, Brian Jones, who, according to Alex Cox (presenter of BBC2's Moviedrome), partly inspired the character of Turner.
During the filming, Donald Cammell allegedly encouraged the cast and crew to take drugs and mingle sexually to help get into the necessary atmosphere.