A few years after this movie, Sir Anthony Hopkins had already signed on to play Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal (2001), but Jodie Foster had declined. When director Ridley Scott let Hopkins know what actresses were being considered to play Clarice, Hopkins remembered how much he enjoyed working with Julianne Moore on this movie, and recommended her.
Reproductions of Picasso's art work were not allowed to be used in this movie. However, the estates of Henri Matisse and Georges Braque allowed their work to be represented.
Natascha McElhone's featuring film debut. It was while she was appearing in Richard III at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre that she was seen by James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, who cast her opposite Anthony Hopkins. "There I was in my first movie, playing a huge role opposite an enormous star, so there was no sense of dipping my toe in and testing the waters," she said.
Sir Anthony Hopkins ate the same diet as Pablo Picasso during filming.
The cast includes two Oscar winners: Sir Anthony Hopkins and Julianne Moore; and one Oscar nominee: Dame Joan Plowright.