Maybe because Leeloo was very child like at the start?

🤷I don't assume any logical thought behind pedophilia defense, I'd just rather it not be in any community I associate with.

The director's previous film, Leon: The Professional, features a 12 year old Natalie Portman falling in with an adult hitman who seems to be developmentally stunted in some ways. Over the course of the movie, Portman's character "falls in love" with Leon. To the movie's credit, this is clearly not reciprocated, but it still features a scene where Portman puts on lingerie (over her clothes) and does an impression of Marilyn Monroe's famously horny "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" routine.

Put that right next to The Fifth Element, which features a savvy adult male who becomes the guardian of a woman who is physically an adult but mentally a child, and you've got a kind of gross pattern. Still though, I'd argue all of this, on its own, is easily defensible as artistic expression.

Where things get suspect is when you factor in the director's personal life during the making of these films, as he started "dating" a 15 year old (who he met 3 years prior) before writing Leon. He was 32 at the time. They married after she became pregnant at 16.

Also, that "child-like" performance Mila Jovovich gives in The Fifth Element? Well it's important to note that the director wound up getting divorced from his child bride because of the affair he was having with Jovovich. At least she was 18 at the time, but, still, when placed into context, yuck.

https://blenderdumbass.org/reviews/the_fifth_element_1997_is_the_most_tragic_film_in_luc_besson_s_career