Sadler had been drawn to the role of Death as at the time, he had been cast as a serious villain in numerous films, but had wanted to return to doing comedy as he had done earlier in the Broadway production of "Biloxi Blues". Having enjoyed "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure", he thought the idea of Death as a villain in a comedic film would be a good role for him, auditioning via tape using an accent from Czechoslovakian actor Jan Tříska with whom he had co-performed in an earlier stage production. When he was called in to audition in person, they had asked him to come in aged makeup; Sadler contacted Scott Eddo, the makeup supervisor for "Die Hard 2" to make him look authentically old, which Sadler believed helped get him the role, along with the humor he injected into the audition. Sadler said that in the film, nearly everything Death does was written into the script, outside of the same accent that he used from his audition forward.