 Russell attempted to contact Jean Acker, Valentino's first wife, to discuss the reasons for their short-lived marriage (the two separated the day after they were married), but Acker, eighty years old at the time of production, refused to speak to Russell.Film scholar Brian Faucette notes that the film continually shows how "the people who interact with Valentino are constantly trying to discover his sexual orientation... Russell does imply that women value Valentino as a sexual object but that Valentino is not a man interested in selling his body for money.