Sean Parker was asked for comment on his portrayal by Justin Timberlake, and observed, "I wish I was that cool."
Larry Summers admitted that the film's depiction of his meeting with the Winklevoss twins was fairly accurate and took his portrayal as a condescending Deadpan Snarker in good humor.
Joseph Mazzello admitted that part of the reason he took the role of Dustin Moskovitz was because he was exhausted from filming The Pacific and thought playing a college student would be fun.
Armie Hammer stated that the instant he heard that a new David Fincher film was in production, he went to his agent and said that he had to be a part of it in some way, shape or form, even if it meant making coffee on set. While his agent initially told him to keep his expectations in check, he later found out that the film needed a guy who was 6'5; Hammer just so happened to be 6'5, and the rest is history.
Black Sheep Hit: Fincher stated that he saw the film as this and was amazed that it became his most commercially and critically successful film when it's so different from his other films and what he's interested in:
Fincher: It’s a little glib to be a film. Let’s hope we strove to get at something interesting, but Social Network is not earth-shattering. Zodiac was about murders that changed America. After the Zodiac killings in California, the Summer of Love was over...No one died during the creation of Facebook. By my estimation, the person who made out the worst in the creation of Facebook still made more than 30 million dollars...And besides, on Social Network, I didn’t really agree with the critics’ praise. It interested me that Social Network was about friendships that dissolved through this thing that promised friendships, but I didn’t think we were ripping the lid off anything. The movie is true to a time and a kind of person, but I was never trying to turn a mirror on a generation.
The filmmakers couldn't shoot at Harvard and had to shoot at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. Some scenes were filmed at UCLA Film Schools in California, and there are a few shots in the film that were sneak shoots of the greater campus area. A few places in the film were also sets.
The story moves to the San Francisco Bay Area (where Facebook relocated to) for the last act, but the scenes there were actually shot in Los Angeles.
Cast the Runner-Up: Andrew Garfield auditioned for Mark Zuckerberg, but he was deemed too emotional for the role — so he got cast as Eduardo Saverin instead.
Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield were both 26 at the time of filming, playing 19-year-old Zuckerberg and 21-year-old Saverin respectively, though they also play the characters a couple years down the line (2007?) in the Framing Device. The real Zuckerberg was himself only 26 when the movie came out.
Peter Thiel, around 37 at the time he made the angel investment in Facebook, is played by Wallace Langham, who was 44 or 45 at the time of shooting.
DVD Commentary: Wherein David Fincher basically gives a film school masterclass and at one point tells viewers to take it up with writer Aaron Sorkin if they have complaints about a certain scene, going as far as providing his email address (which is bleeped out).
Dyeing for Your Art: Justin Timberlake lost 20 pounds in order to look younger, Max Minghella tanned his skin to play an Indian-American, and Josh Pence and Armie Hammer (the Winklevosses) were sent off to a sort of boot camp in order to train as rowers and learn each other's physical mannerisms.
American-born and UK citizen Andrew Garfield playing Brazilian-born Eduardo Saverin.
Indian-American Divya Narendra was played by English actor Max Minghella, who is of Italian, Scottish, and Chinese descent, not without minor controversy. The DVD Commentary with the cast stated that Minghella was artificially tanned for the role, which led to a hilarious moment when Armie Hammer and Josh Pence met the real Divya Narendra. They decided to introduce him to Minghella and convinced him (as a joke) to speak in a thick Mystical India accent. Upon hearing him, Minghella turned white and spent the next 30 minutes apologizing profusely for his performance.
Italian American Joseph Mazzello plays the Jewish American Dustin Moskovitz.
Follow the Leader: The film's trailer creatively used a choral arrangement of Radiohead's "Creep" (sung by Belgian girls' choir Scala and Kolacny Brothers) to haunting effect; many viewers praised it as one of the most memorable movie trailers in years, and several critics credited it with managing to get audiences interested in a movie about the founding of Facebook — which could easily have been a boring premise otherwise. In the years since, various other films and TV shows have borrowed that technique for trailers, with so many examples cropping up that they eventually solidified as the Moody Trailer Cover Song trope, with this film's trailer being cited as the Trope Codifier.
Irony As He Is Cast: Despite playing the world's most famous social media magnate, Jesse Eisenberg doesn't use social media in Real Life, and doesn't have official public accounts on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. When asked if he spent any time on Facebook to prepare for his role, he answered that he "signed on for, like, 20 seconds one time".
Playing Their Own Twin: Armie Hammer plays both of the Winklevoss twins — well, sort of. He played all of Cameron, and Josh Pence played the body of Tyler, with Hammer's head digitally added in post-production.
The note Mark gets passed in class the morning after the Facemash incident, which reads "U dick," was supposed to be something more vulgar (presumably "cocksucker"), but would have cost the movie its PG-13 rating.
Had the school been more cooperative, the movie would have been shot on location at Harvard.
The opening credits were originally going to be scored to Pulp's "Common People" until David Fincher realized the irony of using a song nostalgic to him in a movie meant to capture the zeitgeist of 21st century youth.
After failing to find suitable twin actors to play the Winklevoss twins, David Fincher was originally going to have Josh Pence use his own face and voice for Tyler Winklevoss and have the twins be fraternal. However, Fincher decided the twins had to be identical to reflect real life, so they went with the process of doubling Armie Hammer's face on Pence's body.
Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: Aaron Sorkin wrote the script as Ben Mezrich was writing the book it was based upon The Accidental Billionaires because David Fincher optioned the project based simply on a book proposal. Mezrich would write a chapter and hand it off to Sorkin, who would then write the screenplay based on it.
Rashida Jones, who plays one of the lawyers, actually went to Harvard.
Malese Jow's character Alice is based on Mark Zuckerberg's girlfriend and later wife Priscilla Chan.
Mark Zuckerberg offered a mixed reaction to the film for a variety of reasons both during its creation and after release. Upon first being told of its production, he expressed dismay at the idea of a film about him being made while he was still alive. More apprehension came when the script was later leaked, revealing that the film would not portray Mark in a completely positive light, to which he iterated that he wanted to establish himself as a "good guy". Initially vowing to never see it, he eventually rented out an entire theater in Palo Alto on the film's opening day to watch it with his employees. According to Jesse Eisenberg, he has a cousin who worked at Facebook during the film's production and was among the employees Mark took to see it, and he received word from his cousin that "[Mark] thought I did a good job." Mark also went on public record verifying the accuracy of his on-screen wardrobe, and later appeared in a Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Eisenberg (the first time the two had met), where he was asked by Eisenberg about his thoughts on his performance and simply responded, "It was interesting." However, he took far less kindly to (and was most vocal about) the film's artistic liberties — probably because they hit a little too close to the mark.
What with the developments in the stories of Zuckerberg and Facebook since the film's release, a sequel to the film has been more than purely speculative for some time now. In July 2019, Eisenberg confirmed interest in reprising his role if Sorkin writes, and in October 2020, Sorkin confirmed interest in writing only if Fincher directs. In October 2023, Fincher was asked about the possibility of the sequel and responded, "Aaron and I have talked about it, but, um…that’s a can of worms."
creatively used a choral arrangement of Radiohead's "Creep" (sung by Belgian girls' choir Scala and Kolacny Brothers) to haunting effect; many viewers praised it as one of the most memorable movie trailers in years, and several critics credited it with managing to get audiences interested in a movie about the founding of Facebook — which could easily have been a boring premise otherwise. In the years since, various other films and TV shows have borrowed that technique for trailers, with so many examples cropping up that they eventually solidified as the Moody Trailer Cover Song trope, with this film's trailer being cited as the Trope Codifier.