Both Ron Perlman and Everett McGill suffered frostbite; luckily they were able to heal completely. Despite the working conditions, they both enjoyed making the film.
A majority of the scenes were shot in a single take.
The woolly mammoths were played by circus elephants.
Ron Perlman expected the film to be no better than campier prehistoric movies like One Million Years B.C. (1966). In his memoir, he confessed that this caused him to be unnecessarily rude to Jean-Jacques Annaud during their first meeting. Rather than take offense, Annaud was fascinated by Perlman's candor, and (after initially hating each other early in filming) the two would become close friends.