Director Peyton Reed worked with Ian Roberts (who played Sparky Polastri) in the Upright Citizens Brigade, so he called on him to play this role with some pizzazz and comedy. Reed told BuzzFeed that nearly everything he did in the film was improvised. "That role in the original script was funny but thin and stereotypical. We knew he had to be a charlatan at the centre of all of this — a guy who was up to no good — but we wanted to create something we hadn't seen with this pill-popping guy who was just a total fraud."