The initial plan was to produce the movie in the United States, but there were problems finding a female lead.
Nicole Kidman,
Sharon Stone,
Julianne Moore and
Diane Lane were offered the role, but they all passed on the opportunity.
Marion Cotillard and
Carice van Houten were also considered.
Paul Verhoeven later revealed that when
Isabelle Huppert heard of the plans to adapt the book, she called around to express her interest in the project; when she landed the lead role, she requested that Verhoeven be asked to direct. After producer
Saïd Ben Saïd sent Verhoeven a copy of the book by
Philippe Djian, his interest was immediately piqued, and fortunately, Verhoeven and Huppert were fans of each other's work and had wanted to work together for a long time, so his participation was quickly secured. It was then decided to relocate the shoot of Elle to France, since there would be no American lead and no American company was willing to produce such a controversial film. Verhoeven also claimed that most actresses who had previously been approached immediately turned down the part as soon as they had read the script, instead of waiting for a few days, which is standard practice. One of the actresses said that she felt uncomfortable because of things that had happened to her in the past, and another didn't give any reasons but just said "certainly not". Verhoeven also told The Guardian that the only American actress he thought would have been game was
Jennifer Jason Leigh (with whom he worked in
Flesh+Blood (1985)): "She would have had absolutely no problem. She's extremely audacious. But she's an artistic presence and we were looking for names". Although Huppert had difficulties relating to her character, Verhoeven was exceptionally pleased with her performance, stating that she brought things to the role beyond what was written in the script, and that it was her film from the beginning, since he had only joined the project much later on her insistence.
