Like most of his roles, Nicolas Cage came up with his hairdo.
Nicolas Cage's own brother Marc Coppola makes a cameo as one of Richard's party guest ; Sidney, the bald guy who looks like "Paul" played by Nicolas Cage.
Nicolas Cage wanted to retire after shooting this movie as he thought his meta trilogy PIG (2021) The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent (2022) And Dream Scenario (2023) was the perfect way to end his career.
In a 2023 interview with Slant magazine, Kristoffer Borgli spoke about his approach to working with Nicolas Cage on the film: "I had written the character with no one in mind. On paper, this guy is unremarkable. He doesn't stand out, he's very bland, and he's socially awkward and sort of a beta male. Here we are casting one of the most recognizable people on the planet and someone who has a lot of natural charisma and energy. The idea of him in this role has this meta layer to it because there's so much overlap with how the culture has treated him as a mythical icon and what happens with Paul Matthews. But I needed to shave off Nicolas Cage, so that's why he's bald in the movie. That's why he's distinctly dressed as a suburban dad. It's also why we made a prosthetic nose, which might be hard to detect, but he has a slightly different nose. All of these details create the sort of uncanny feeling of watching a person that you've never seen before."
The movie premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. This marks ten years in a row for Nicolas Cage to have a film in the festival.