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  After the success of La Femme Nikita, French writer/director Luc Besson discovered that American movie audiences found his gallic style of work more palatable wrapped up in the guise of an action film. Armed with this knowledge he began writing Leon (aka The Professional). Besson said he "wanted to write a movie for Jean Reno, just for him. The Leon character is somewhat inspired by Victor, the cleaner in Nikita. I really liked the character and felt like developing it. Plus, the role suited Jean perfectly! I wrote the script in twenty days and since I liked it, I decided that instead of handing it over to someone else, I would do it myself!"    "The thing that interested me about Leon, this indestructible character who has no ID, no bank account, drinks milk and waters his plant, was finding his weakness. How could I trap him, bring him down? I felt that the flaw could only come from his absolute opposite (twelve years old, beautiful and innocent), a child, a girl. I liked this confrontation. Two people in the same society, someone who becomes indestructible faced with a character who is totally his opposite and who will be his downfall, his achilles heel." Auditions for the role of the girl, Mathilda, were held in New York, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, and Dallas. Besson recalls how Natalie Portman was chosen, "Video tests were made. It was when I played the tapes on a colour TV screen that Natalie became evident. She's extraordinarily photogenic. She was eleven and a half then and had never made a movie, just acted in two small plays where she lived. Natalie wanted the role and she loved the script."   "Then we had to convince her family, who was very conservative, that certain scenes and certain situations were fully justified. They were shocked by the script. I explained to them what small changes I could live with and what I wouldn't change. I convinced them that character attitudes were not gratuitous. When Natalie arrived on the set, she had long, curly brown hair. We found a colour and style for her more like Louise Brooks, which is very dark. I thought her mother was going to die when she first saw it. But Natalie was very happy to change." 
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