 In Miller's play and his script, Farhadi said he found parallel themes of "humiliation", and also compared the relationship between his characters Rana and Emad to that of Linda and Willy Loman.More symbolism was added with the crumbling buildings, which Farhadi said represented crumbling relationships.Although he was planning to film a Spanish language-project abroad, Farhadi opted to delay it to return to Tehran to make "The Salesman" in 2015.