On the outside shoots, the filmmakers were forced to work with the ambient lighting because the budget wasn't big enough to allow for illuminating the roads. When it rained, the scene would become a rain scene.

"I would wet the road down anticipating rain," says Cronenberg. "Then if it rains in the middle I'm not caught. It's a nice ambience, metal always looks better when it rains and all that."

Cronenberg avoided any type of slow-motion shooting, as he was trying to capture the suddenness of car crashes in a realistic fashion. In making the film, he discovered how durable Volvos are,. To make those look realistic when crashed, they cre actually had to partially damage them beforehand.

As the director, Cronenberg found the car scenes much more difficult than the numerous sex scenes. Although he says the "sex was never comfortable," these sequences didn't present any problems because the actors and actresses were totally immersed in the film.

"You cannot drag someone kicking and screaming into a movie like 'Crash,' not on any level," he says. They had to be there, ready to do it. No discussions about showing this or not showing that. It was 'how do we get the best out of this scene?"

Unlike many directors, Cronenberg had no problem letting the actors see exactly what was being shot.

"It was, all total trust,' he says. "I always trusted them to not freak out when they saw that I was shooting, and they trusted me to bring out the best in the scenes."