When casting Jodie Foster, Jean-Pierre Jeunet met her in Paris at the café which was used to shoot the scenes in Die fabelhafte Welt der Amelie (2001) which is near where he lives. Some tourists were at the café, knowing it was featured in the film, asked Jeunet and Foster to move out of the way (not recognizing them) so that they could take a photograph of the café.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet met Jodie Foster as she was supervising the dubbed version of Panic Room (2002). The main roles were already taken but Jodie Foster agreed to star in a little role, as Elodie Gordes. She speaks French fluently, so she acted with her own voice.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet originally wanted to cast Dominique Pinon as Germain Pire the private eye and Ticky Holgado as uncle Sylvain. However, Holgado had been diagnosed with cancer and the studio refused to insure him. Therefore, Jeunet decided to switch the actors and did not regret his decision afterward. As Holgado became more and more ill, he began to have trouble concentrating and remembering his lines. Jeunet prepared a rough cut of the movie for Holgado to see, but Ticky passed on before he could do so.
A Paris court ruling prevented the movie from receiving State financial aid reserved to French movie production companies because it was produced by a company owned by Warner Bros., hence not a French company.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet revealed that before filming, the sex scenes with Jodie Foster had been a big deal with agents, managers and so on. "I had to send the scene, the storyboard, explanations and so on. On the day of shooting, Jodie, without any hang-ups, stripped naked in front of the whole team, like 'you're the ones who are going to be embarrassed, not me'. I can still see the cameraman holding out his camera in front of Jodie, not knowing where to look," he recalled.