Real life mother and son Talia Shire and Jason Schwartzman portray mother and son in this movie, Mrs. Silver and Albert Markovski.
Jonah Hill would perform plays at a local comedy club that drew crowds. One night, the children of Dustin Hoffman stopped by and found Hill to be hilarious. Hoffman's kids told Hill, "You should meet our dad." Hill did not know that their father was the famous actor, and was initially weirded out, nervously replying, "You should meet my dad." The next week, Hill was invited to dinner with the Hoffman family, and was gobsmacked when he realized that he was in the home of the legendary actor. Dustin Hoffman was impressed with Hill, and asked co-writer, producer, and director David O. Russell if he could have a part in the film. Russell said yes.
In March 2007, two videos appeared on the Internet showing on-set arguments between David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin. In one video, during filming of the office scene, Tomlin was annoyed at his direction, and Russell snapped, calling Tomlin several foul names and knocked over parts of the set. Dustin Hoffman can be seen walking away, hoping not to get involved. In the other video, while filming a scene in a car, Tomlin screams obscenities at Russell and gives him the middle finger. She also screams at Hoffman and Naomi Watts when they ask her to continue the scene. The car scene is not in the film. In an interview with the New York Times, Tomlin said "Adults have fights and go through stuff. I know some people are more dignified in the world, that if you transgress against that kind of professionalism, that it's some kind of great sin, but I don't see it that way."
Albert (Jason Schwartzman) was loosely based by co-writer, producer, and director David O. Russell on himself, and the themes of the film were inspired by Russell's mentor, Robert Thurman, Uma Thurman's father. In fact, Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) was modeled directly after Thurman.
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