During the painting of the second John Hurt portrait, Hurt's son Nicholas sat on his knee and Wright, who witnessed the little scene, came up with the idea of painting Hurt and son as ventriloquist and dummy. He later modified the idea to paint Hurt and himself as ventriloquist and dummy.

Hurt posed for the painting in Dublin in September of 2001. The background was later painted at the Old Vic in London.

A documentary of the painting of this picture featuring interviews with John Hurt and Stuart Pearson Wright was filmed by Coluga Pictures for Channel 4.