French actress Leslie Coutterand was on call throughout the entire shoot to replace Lindsay Lohan at a moment's notice due to Lohan's repeated absences. Coutterrand was essentially paid to be Lohan's understudy in case she left the set and didn't return. Problem was, she was in France. Also, once Lohan filmed her first couple of scenes, she knew there was less chance of her being replaced because the production couldn't afford to reshoot her scenes with another actress.
As described in a New York Times article by Stephen Rodrick about the film's unusual production, Paul Schrader directed a sex scene naked in an effort to placate the reluctant Lindsay Lohan who was refusing to take off her clothes. Lohan didn't ask Schrader to take off his clothes though. That was his idea. [Jan. 10, 2013]
The film was first submitted to the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, but rejected because of unspecified "quality issues" according to an anonymous member of the selection team, that spoke with the media. This breach of confidentiality is highly unusual for a film festival and was strongly criticized by director Paul Schrader, because it damaged the festival career of his film, which was then also rejected by the SXSW Film Festival, probably because they didn't want to be seen as a second-rate festival taking leftovers. Schrader received an apology by Sundance, but the damage through the American media reports was already done. Fortunately, there was far more interest by prestigious film festivals in Europe, where Schrader still has a strong reputation as an 'auteur'. Schrader said, that his film had been invited into the competition of the 66th Locarno International Film Festival (in early Aug. 2013), but he decided that a European premiere out of competition at the much bigger 70th Venice International Film Festival (in late Aug. 2013) would be better for the film's promotion.
When it came time to film the night time four-way sex scene, Lindsey Lohan walked into the bedroom of the mansion filming location wearing only a robe, but she was too nervous at the idea of performing with the three porn stars (co-star James Deen and another man and woman) director Paul Schrader hired and who were already walking around naked. She was afraid they'd try to have actual sex with her. So she hid in a closet for an hour. Schrader finally coaxed her out, but she refused to take off her robe. According to a New York Times reporter on set to document the production, 64-year old Schrader, desperate to start shooting before the morning sun came up and ruined the lightning, quickly stripped off his own clothes and stood naked in front of Lohan telling her it's so she would feel more comfortable. But according to Deen, Lohan was initially demanding that everyone on set, including the reporter and the crew, strip off their clothes too so it wasn't just her being naked in front of them. At that point, Schrader said the crew wasn't going to do that but he would, so he got naked. However it happened, it worked. Lohan took off her robe. Now fully nude, she started filming and they shot the entire scene in one long 14-minute take. Schrader remained naked the entire time
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