B-movie favorite Jewel Shepard said this is the first film where she didn't have to audition. But first time 22-year old director Mark Rocco didn't cast her. Producer John Daly, who had just produced Return Of The Living Dead (1985), which Shepard starred in, gave Rocco a list of actors he wanted, including Shepard, for Goldmine and told Rocco he had to use them. Shepard said Rocco wasn't happy about that and assumed she was only cast because she had sex with Daly, which wasn't true. So Rocco tried getting her to sleep with him too. When she turned him down, he was very, very nasty to her on set and minimized her appearance on screen. Her character Dana had a more prominent role in the script, but Rocco cut most of it.
Catherine Mary Stewart and Cameron Dye were previously in The Last Starfighter.
Melissa Etheridge's debut.