The Salesman (2016 film) make a film until he decided his protagonists should be stage actors. Part of this decision owed to Farhadi's own background in the theatre, and his desire to re-immerse himself in that atmosphere. He also felt actors had to think of themselves as other people and create empathy, and his male protagonist would be forced to feel empathy for another man. Looking for a play within the film, Farhadi researched the work of Jean-Paul Sartre and Henrik Ibsen before finding Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman", which he described as "a gift for me". In Miller's play and his script,
The Play What I Wrote as the title character of this play within a play. Celebrities who appeared as the mystery guest during the show's London run included Ralph Fiennes (who appeared on opening night), Ewan McGregor, Bob Geldof, Cilla Black and Sue Johnston. Kevin Kline, Roger Moore (who suffered a heart attack onstage one night during the performance), Alan Alda, Jeff Goldblum and Daniel Radcliffe were among those who appeared in the Broadway run. The play debuted at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre in the summer of 2001. It then premiered in the West End at the Wyndham's Theatre in November 2001, directed by Kenneth