Reportedly based on a real incident in 1927. A Russian filmmaker covertly shot footage of the vacationing Mary Pickford, and fashioned an entire film around the footage, creating the illusion that Pickford was actually starring in this Russian film.
In reality, the 1927 film Potseluy Meri Pikford (1927) featured cameos from Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. They participated in the film as a goodwill gesture towards the emerging Russian film industry.
The film was shot during Eddie Murphy's busy schedule and the third film Murphy had worked on that was produced by Imagine Entertainment. The Nutty Professor remake in 1996 was the first and "Life" which he had finished filming weeks prior to beginning to work on this film. Murphy did have a very tight window to work with on this film of a rumored six weeks only since he was in development of The Klumps, the sequel to The Nutty Professor, which would begin filming in 1999 and eventually released in 2000.
Eddie Murphy ad-libbed the line "You're doing great! You're going to be a star." in the scene where Daisy is topless.
The character of Daisy (played by Heather Graham) is a thinly veiled jab at Anne Heche. Like Daisy, Heche is from Ohio, and, also like Daisy, Heche was briefly romantically involved with a significantly older man, Steve Martin. Daisy's last lines about being involved with "the most powerful lesbian in Hollywood" are a reference to Heche's relationship at the time with Ellen DeGeneres.
Eddie Murphy became interested in this movie when he heard he would be working with Steve Martin, of whom he is a huge fan. When Murphy sat down with Martin and director Frank Oz, the first thing he said was that Kit Ramsey should be "a black action superstar". Oz then asked if that meant he was making the film, and Murphy said yes. Martin later joked that "Eddie's audition was VERY good".