Paul Bettany didn't want to play Tom Edison because they were shooting it in Sweden. Then his friend Stellan Skarsgård said that Lars von Trier's shoots are so funny that "you'll miss something extraordinary if you turn the part down". After shooting half the movie Bettany asked Skarsgård when the fun will start, which Skarsgård replied: "I lied. I did it because he is amazing to work with, and you wouldn't be able to see that before you were actually here yourself. I wanted to give you a chance, and you wouldn't have shown up if I had been frank with you"
A fifteen-minute pilot film was made in the pre-production phase to test whether the concept of chalk lines and spare scenery would work. The pilot starred Danish actors Sidse Babett Knudsen and Nikolaj Lie Kaas. Dogville: The Pilot (2003) is featured on the 2nd disc of the Dogville (2003) DVD, released in November of 2003.
Many continuity issues (hats on/off in alternating shots etc) are entirely deliberate. There are a large number of quick cuts throughout the film which serve to disorientate and confuse the viewer. The continuity in these cases is never precise and is as much a part of the final film as the script.
Grace: All I see is a beautiful little town in the midst of magnificent mountains. A place where people have hopes and dreams even under the hardest conditions.
Narrator: It was as if the light, previously so merciful and faint, finally refused to cover up for the town any longer. Suddenly you could no longer imagine a berry that would appear one day on a Gusberry bush, but only see the thorn that was there right now. The light now penetrated every unevenness and floor in the buildings and... in the people.