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Tom Cruise was a fan of Anderson's previous film, Boogie Nights, and contacted the filmmaker while he was working on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut ( 1999 ).

Anderson met with Cruise on the set of Kubrick's film and the actor told him to keep him in mind for his next film.

After Anderson finished the script, he sent Cruise a copy and the next day, the actor called him.

Cruise was interested but nervous about the role.

They met with Cruise along with De Luca who helped convince the actor to do the film.

Frank T. J. Mackey, the character that Cruise would play in the film, was based in part on an audio-recording done in an engineering class taught by a friend that was given to Anderson.

It consisted of two men, " talking all this trash " about women and quoting a man named Ross Jeffries, who was teaching a new version of the Eric Weber course, " How to Pick Up Women ," but utilizing hypnotism and subliminal language techniques.

Anderson transcribed the tape and did a reading with Reilly and Chris Penn.

The director then incorporated this dialogue and his research on Jeffries and other self-help gurus into Mackey and his sex seminar.

Anderson felt that Cruise was drawn to the role because he had just finished making Eyes Wide Shut, playing a repressed character, and was able to then play a character that was " outlandish and bigger-than-life ".