Sybil Danning talked about her view of nudity in this and most of her other films in a recent article. Danning's uninhibited sexual confidence aroused a fair amount of criticism from those who viewed nudity as nothing more than exploitation of women. Danning disagreed. "People have asked, 'Does a strong woman take her clothes off? Aren't you being exploited yourself?' I think being a strong. intelligent woman takes a level of maturity, which includes experience and independence," explained Danning. "That doesn't mean I have to run around in pants and a shirt buttoned up to my neck, wearing glasses. I'm a woman And being a woman means being sexy beyond everything else I've mentioned. I don't think there's a woman in the world who doesn't want to be sexy. If she says she doesn't, she's being untruthful with herself."
The picture is part of a mini early-to-mid 1980s cycle of Hollywood movies where a young man has an affair with a more mature woman. This has started after the box-office success of the late 1970s Canadian film In Praise of Older Women (1978). The films include: Class (1983), My Tutor (1983), Private Lessons (1981), In the Mood (1987), and They're Playing with Fire (1984).
Sybil Danning said Eric Brown was uncomfortable in the sex scenes. "I don't know why, maybe he was just in a very bad state of mind at that time in his life or something. But Mr. Brown, young little Mr. Brown hated doing the sexy scenes. He didn't want to do them. He felt totally uncomfortable doing them. He did not like doing them, and I think maybe because he was so against doing it that it came across as him being shy maybe. It worked."
Back in the 1980s B-movie actress Sybil Danning admitted in an interview that she felt her lead role in They're Playing with Fire (1984) was her best ever performance.