Much of the film depicts set-related incidents that echo scenes in François Truffaut's Day for Night (1973), to which Irma Vep owes a large thematic debt. However, Olivier Assayas publicly stated that although he considers Day for Night (1973) a great film, it is more about the fantasy of filmmaking than the reality. Assayas credits Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Beware of a Holy Whore (1971) as a greater inspiration.
The idea for the film was born out of an attempted collaboration among Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis, and Atom Egoyan, who wanted to experiment with the situation of a foreigner in Paris.
In 2020, it was announced that HBO had commissioned a limited series based on the film with Alicia Vikander cast in the lead role. In the series, Vikander will play an actress called Mira who moves to France in order to star in an adaptation of Les vampires (1915).
This film is part of the Criterion Collection, spine #1,074.