Director Malgorzata Szumowska revealed Joanna Kulig, who in the film plays a prostitute, was so afraid of the scene where she is naked with a client who is peeing over her. "It was amazing that for three months she was afraid of that scene. But what was challenging was that when she starts to do it, she did it very fast. In a few hours without any hysteria, no questions." During that scene Kulig wanted to hear classical music and asked that not all the crew were on the set. "For me it was very difficult to keep concentrated!" - the actress said. "The scene was funny. On the sixth time [the juice machine] was broke so we had to stop. And everybody started to laugh. I had to be very concentrated. To have a serious face thinking about the subject. And I started to play and for two minutes, 'Sorry! We have to stop. This machine doesn't work with the juice!' And everybody...."
Malgorzata Szumowska admitted that the scene with the sadistic client was very painful for Anaïs Demoustier and several takes were necessary. That scene, in which Demoustier's character is anally raped with a wine bottle, was filmed in a very realistic way. Demoustier confirmed that the polish actor Andrzej Chyra (who played the client) "had to be violent and the director wanted to improvise. These kinds of scenes, I do them as an automaton, like a race: I have to know how many meters there are to go and go there. There, I didn't know what was going to happen."
In the film, Who You Think I Am (2019), actors Juliette Binoche and Francois Civil play lovers. In Elles (2011). they play Mother and Son. Ms Binoche jokes about this in the DVD extras about the making of the 2019 film.
Actress Emma Watson's favorite film of 2011. [Indiewire, Nov.21, 2011]