``Léon: The Professional Complete Edition'' A quiet man and eloquent images - A strange way to charm people to evoke feelings

The hardships behind Natalie Portman's "crying" performance

Now, let's take a look back at the background behind the birth of ``Léon: The Professional''. Luc Besson, who originally portrayed an assassin in `` Nikita '' (1990), came up with the idea of ​​expanding the character of the ``cleaner'' (played by Jean Reno) in that film.

Initially, Besson was working on his dream project, `` The Fifth Element '' (1997), but was having trouble raising funds. So he decides to make a low-budget movie and use the proceeds to cover production costs. That's how ``Léon: The Professional'' was born.

As a result, this work became a huge hit, and the production of ``The Fifth Element'' was successfully completed. In fact, plans for a sequel to ``Léon: The Professional'' were even brought up, and he apparently even wrote the script, but that fell through due to Besson becoming independent from the studio. The idea was later used in `` Colombiana '' (11).

Since ``Léon: The Professional'' is a derivative work from ``Nikita,'' Jean Reno was the only choice to star, but there are rumors that Mel Gibson and Keanu Reeves were also interested. By the way, Christina Ricci also auditioned for the role of Matilda (Liv Tyler was also apparently one of the candidates). Natalie Portman, who was 11 years old at the time of casting, was reportedly rejected once by a casting director because she was "too young," but director Besson was impressed by her performance at the audition, and she was offered the role. I grabbed it.

"Léon: The Professional Complete Edition" (c) Photofest / Getty Images

However, Portman's parents were reportedly worried about their daughter taking on the role of Matilda, and director Besson was careful to control the ``smoking scenes'' so that Portman would not actually inhale cigarette smoke. It seems that they gave out. In the play, the scene where Léon: The Professional tells Matilda to stop smoking is an important part, and the script is structured to show the bond between the two.

As a side note, Portman said that at the beginning of filming, she had a hard time portraying the scene where Matilda goes to Léon: The Professional's room crying after learning that her family has died. Coach Besson then helped her by spraying mint oil in her eyes. According to Portman, ``It hurt so much that I was able to cry properly The Day After that.'' The final scene, in which Léon: The Professional opens the door and Matilda is enveloped in light, perfectly expresses the idea of ​​``relief'', but it seems that there were some unknown hardships going on behind the scenes.

In this way, "Léon: The Professional" still has countless hidden stories (for example, the song " The Experience Of Love " used by Eric Serra in " 007 GoldenEye " (1995) was originally written by "Léon: The Professional"). It was apparently planned to be the ending theme for the song.) If you take this into account and look back at the work, you will probably feel a new sense of emotion.

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