Nicolas Cage wanted to retire after shooting this movie. He believed that his "meta trilogy" that consists of Pig (2021), The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022), and Dream Scenario (2023) was the perfect way to end his career.
The movie premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, marking the 10th consecutive year in which the festival to feature a Nicolas Cage film.
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."
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight (1981), Nicolas Cage revealed that while shooting this film in Toronto, his cousin Sofia Coppola was also there shooting Priscilla (2023), and his uncle Francis Ford Coppola was shooting Megalopolis (2024) in Atlanta. The three talked about each of their movies and gave each other feedback.
Marc Coppola: As Sidney, the bald party guest who looks like Nicolas Cage's character Paul. Coppola is Cage's older brother.
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