Trivia

Universal and Warner Bros. were both making biopics of Dian Fossey at the same time, and both were competing to gain access to film gorillas in Rwanda. The Rwandan government refused access to film the gorillas until the two studios could come to an agreement. At that point, Warner and Universal decided to merge their two projects into a single film.

The gorilla suits used in movies up to this time had obvious anatomical differences from real gorillas. For instance, the wearer's real eyes were seen, forcing modification to the face. For this film, director Michael Apted wanted to use real gorillas where possible, but some shots would have to use gorilla suits, so the difference would show. Rick Baker met the challenge and created gorilla suits good enough that Apted could do what he wanted.

For a number of reasons, the crew kept its distance from the gorillas when not filming them. One day, when preparing to shoot a scene, the actors and crew were hanging around and paying little attention to a stuntman who casually climbed into his gorilla suit. The suit was extremely realistic, even featuring internal forearm extenders. The upcoming scene featured a charging gorilla, which required the stunt man to run on all fours using the ungainly arm extenders. Being dressed and ready, the stuntman then performed a practice charge. No one had paid any notice to the fellow until that exact moment. When he did the practice charge, he scared the cast and crew, causing a number of them to flee, as they thought that an actual gorilla was going after them. It took a few minutes for everyone to calm down and recognize the humor of the situation.

According to one of the costumers, the baby gorillas who interacted with humans were played by chimpanzees in black-face with peaked fur hats to more closely resemble gorillas. Using actual baby gorillas would have put the filmmakers in serious danger from the adult gorillas.

Sembagare is based on Rosamund Carr's former house boy, Sembagare Munyamboneza, who set up the Imbabazi orphanage with her in 1994 after the Rwandan Genocide.