Trivia

Both Anjelica Huston and Gene Hackman turned down their roles until additional scenes providing more character depth were written specifically for them.

The monster-masked men paintings in Eli's apartment are attributed to Mexican artist Miguel Calderón and were part of his 1998 exhibit "Aggressively Mediocre/Mentally Challenged/Fantasy Island (circle one)", though they were not actually painted by him. Calderón took photographs of his friends posed on motorcycles and, after deciding the photographs were not realistic, hired a portrait painter to reproduce them on canvas.

Director Trademark: [Wes Anderson] [in-camera speed change] The last scene changes from normal speed to slow-motion.

The idea of Margot losing part of her finger was originally written for the character of Margaret Yang in Rushmore (1998).

Etheline Tennenbaum's character is loosely based on director Wes Anderson's own mother Ann Buroughs who, after divorcing his father, became an archaeologist. Burroughs' actual glasses are worn by Etheline.

The character Henry Sherman was named after Wes Anderson's landlord.

Danny Glover's look in the film was modeled after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. This was Wes Anderson's idea, after Glover, who knows Annan personally, introduced Anderson to him at a UN event.

Wes Anderson and Andrew Wilson provided the voices for the commentators during Richie Tenenbaum's tennis match. Many viewers thought it was a cameo from Jason Schwartzman, star of Anderson's previous film, Rushmore (1998). Also, the Wilson brothers all have similar sounding voices, therefore many people think that it is Owen Wilson providing the voice of the second commentator. Anderson also plays bass on the reggae in the initial sequence.