Kissaihmiset

Director Paul Schrader and lead actress Nastassja Kinski had an affair during the production of this movie. Schrader fell in love and planned to propose marriage to Kinski at the wrap party, but she didn't show up and cut off all communication with him. After three months Schrader finally tracked Kinski down in Paris, where she bluntly told him, "Paul, I always fuck my directors. And with you it was difficult".

During the leopard autopsy scene, when Oliver is moving the "dead" cat from the wheeled cart to the autopsy table, he lets the cat's head bump down a little hard onto the metal table. Off camera you can hear someone say, "Easy!" as an admonishment to be more careful with the cat. This is most apparent in the DVD version, and is undetectable in the 2017 release of the Collector's Edition Blu-Ray.

Syndicated TV version has a couple additional scenes AND an altered ending. The alternate ending occurs when Oliver corners the panther that was Irena on the bridge. In the theatrical version the Irena panther jumps off the bridge and escapes. The panther kills a friend of Oliver's to become human again and hides out in Oliver's shack. Oliver finds Irena there and they both agree to make love one last time (knowing that she'll become a panther again). The last scene in the movie has Oliver petting and feeding the Irena panther in a cage at the zoo. In the syndicated TV version it ends at the bridge when Oliver shoot's the Irena panther with a knock out dart and then cuts to the scene when he feeds and pets the Irena panther at the zoo. This eliminated the need to edit down the steamy last lovemaking scene. Another additional scene in the syndicated version has Irena accidently scaring a bird in a cage to death just by her presence.

Featured in Sneak Previews: Victor Victoria/Silent Rage/Cat People/I Ought to Be In Pictures (1982)