Before filming, Mendes and Spacey analyzed Jack Lemmon's performance in The Apartment (1960), because Mendes wanted Spacey to emulate "the way moved, the way he looked, the way he was in that office and the way he was an ordinary man and yet a special man".
Prije početka snimanja, Mendes i Spacey analizirali su ulogu Jacka Lemmona u filmu Apartman (iz 1960. godine) zbog toga što je Mendes želio da Spacey imitira "način na koji se Lemmon kretao, način na koji je izgledao, kako se kretao u uredu te način na koji je bio običan čovjek, a opet poseban".