History Trivia / TheProfessional

* DarkhorseCasting: While Gary Oldman, Jean Reno, and Danny Aiello were fairly recognizable to moviegoing audiences, Natalie Portman was a relative newcomer when she was cast as Mathilda and her only experience beforehand was serving as an understudy to Creator/LauraBellBundy in the off-Broadway musical ''Ruthless!''. None of the other actors and actresses were particularly well known, though Creator/MichaelBadalucco (who played Mathilda's father) would carve out a career playing supporting or bit characters in movies and TV shows. Willi One Blood who plays one of Stansfield's goons was a minor reggae singer.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: The relationship between Leon and Mathilda was based on Creator/LucBesson's relationship with actress and director Maïwenn Le Besco, whom he started dating when he was 31 and she was 15.

** The French Maiwenn Le Besco plays an American prostitute who is the girlfriend of the Fatman.

* ActorInspiredElement / ActorSharedBackground: Due to the barebones script written on a short amount of time (one month) and the character-driven nature of the work, a lot of the film and its characters came from Creator/JeanReno, Creator/NataliePortman and Creator/GaryOldman, with a good number of lines and elements being [[ThrowItIn ad-libbed]].

* ReferencedBy:
** ''VideoGame/AnnieLastHope'' have posters of this film in the opening subway stage, notably the iconic FaceOnTheCover featuring Leon himself and an alternate one featuring Mathilda. The game is set in 1996.
** One of Norman Stansfield's quotes "Death is...whimsical today" is said by Kel'thuzad in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' and Zenyatta in ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' which were developed by Creator/BlizzardEntertainment.
** Stansfield's "EVERYONE!" has been emulated in other media such as ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted'', ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'', ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'', ''Series/{{Community}}'' and ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' (which also had Oldman playing a villain)
** The character of Annie in ''WesternAnimation/TheNewBatmanAdventures'' bears a slight resemblance to Mathilda Lando.
** One of the weapon perks in ''VideoGame/PayDay2'' is named after the movie's title in America.
** In ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' there is a perk that's also named after the movie's American title complete with the same attire and potted plant as Leon. Additionally in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', one of the player names available is Leon.
** The protagonist of some ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games is named Leon S. Kennedy. His signature weapon? ''Matilda''. In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'', the highest difficulty mode is called "Professional".
** ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has a class mod for [=Zer0=] the Assassin appropriately called "The Professional". In ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'', the character Zane also has a skill with the same name.
** The Sniper from ''[[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Team Fortress II]]'' has a set called "The Urban Professional".
** One of the alternate skins for the Sniper in ''VideoGame/MondayNightCombat'' is Leon's "cleaner" costume.
** In ''Anime/{{Noir}}'', Mirelle has a potted plant akin to Leon.
** Hank from ''WebAnimation/MadnessCombat'' has a getup costume that is directly copied from Leon.
** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedUnity'' has a young orphan named Leon who trains to become an assassin under the tutelage of Arno Dorian. This is of course a reference to the relationship between Leon and Mathilda in the film, which is also a cross-cultural connection since the developer Creator/{{Ubisoft}} is French just like Luc Besson.
** An image of Stansfield saying "EVERYONE!" appears in the ''WebAnimation/ExtraCredits'' episode for [[UsefulNotes/SengokuPeriod Sengoku era Japan]] when describing the Imagawa clan's attempted march to Kyoto.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/JeanReno was Creator/LucBesson's first and only choice for Leon.

* DarkhorseCasting: While Gary Oldman, Jean Reno, and Danny Aiello were fairly recognizable to moviegoing audiences, Natalie Portman was a relative newcomer when she was cast as Mathilda and her only experience beforehand was serving as an understudy to Laura Bell Bundy in the off-Broadway musical ''Ruthless!''. None of the other actors and actresses were particularly well known, though Creator/MichaelBadalucco (who played Mathilda's father) would carve out a career playing supporting or bit characters in movies and TV shows. Willi One Blood who plays one of Stansfield's goons was a minor reggae singer.

** ''Film/{{Colombiana}}'' is more or less ''The Professional'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''[[ComicBook/{{Huntress}} The Huntress]]'' [[RecycledInSpace in Latin America and the United States]]. In fact, it was originally a sequel to the movie titled ''Mathilda'' focused on a grown-up version of the character following in the footsteps of Leon.

* ImageSource:
** LittleMissBadass
** SelfSurgery
** StudentAndMasterTeam

* StarMakingRole: For Creator/NataliePortman [[Film/BeautifulGirls who]] [[Film/MarsAttacks would]] [[Franchise/StarWars go on]] [[Film/{{Closer}} to nab]] [[Film/GardenState many]] [[Film/VForVendetta notable roles]] [[Film/BlackSwan over]] [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse the]] [[Film/{{Jackie}} years]].

** Averted with Creator/DannyAiello, who is an Italian-American mafiosi just like his character.