Director Alina Szpak, shooting 'Player' at age 66, becomes the oldest director making a feature film debut. Her acting debut was in the 1969 Andrzej Wajda classic Landscape After Battle (1970). The end-credit dedication to Zinovi Korogodsky is to her instructor at the Petersburg Institute of Theatre, Music & Cinematography, where she studied for five years.
Originally written by screenwriter Robert Fleet for another actor, who was unavailable, leading director Alina Szpak to assign Fleet to play the lead role of "Sam".