Clouzot was born Véra Gibson-Amado in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Alice do Rego Barros and Gilberto Amado [pt],[1] a Brazilian congressman, writer, journalist, lawyer and ex-President of the United Nations' International Law Committee.

[2] In 1941, Véra met French actor Léo Lapara [fr], a member of the theater company of Louis Jouvet who toured in Brazil during World War II.

[4] The Wages of Fear is about a South American town where a group of desperate men are offered money to drive trucks carrying nitroglycerin through rough terrain to put out an oil well fire.

[7] The most notable of Clouzot's films starring Véra was the classic thriller Les Diaboliques (1955), co-starring Simone Signoret.

The Brazilian government took issue with Clouzot filming the poverty of people in the favelas rather than the more picturesque parts of Brazil.