Michael Douglas turned 68 during filming, making him a few months older than Liberace was when he died. Although played by 42-year-old Matt Damon, Scott Thorson was only 18 when he met Liberace, and 23 when their relationship ended in April 1982. He was still only in his twenties when Liberace died. Played by 30-year-old Boyd Holbrook, Cary-James was also only 18 when he met Liberace.
In Scott Thorson's book Behind the Candelabra, he notes that "in celebrity-saturated Palm Springs only two stars...took the trouble to pay their last respects" at the memorial service for Liberace. One was actress Charlene Tilton, and the other was Kirk Douglas, father of Michael Douglas.
In a January 2013 interview with the New York Post, director Steven Soderbergh said that the film was originally intended for theatrical release, but was ultimately produced by and aired on HBO instead because the story was seen as "too gay" by all of the major Hollywood studios: "Nobody would make it, we went to everybody in town. They all said it was too gay. And this is after Brokeback Mountain (2005), by the way, which is not as funny as this movie. I was stunned. It made no sense to any of us." Despite this, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it received its worldwide premiere. It was also theatrically released in Europe and the rest of the world.