Sven Nordin, who played one of the leading roles in this movie, gained 25 pounds to fit the character he was playing.
Every scene from Elling's neighborhood was shot around Majorstuen, on Oslo's west side. The locations, such as the grocery store where he hides his poems in packages of sauerkraut, and the diner where they eat dinner, are all very real places. The shop and diner look exactly the same today.