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"What I didn't want it to become was a docudrama where the emphasis was on the drama rather than the docu," explains Mailer. "(The mini-series) is a journalistic interpretation (of Hanssen) in the sense that we certainly tried to be as accurate as we could… Whenever possible, we stayed with the interviews. But there's no such thing as writing a movie script about a real person that does not have a lot of invented dialogue. We were trying to come as close as we could to what the best evidence suggests the reality might have been."

Adds Schiller, "Most of Hanssen's dialogue is based on what his children told us, his closest friends told us, what their beliefs were, how he thought about certain subjects and how he acted. But in fact, Mr. Mailer has written dialogue that is totally fiction because we were not allowed to interview Mr. Hanssen. But we think that we've come as close to portraying what Hanssen was about, certainly closer than he could have ever explained if he sat and gave us interviews, because an interview with Hanssen would be self-serving and would not have journalistic objectivity."

In addition to the relying on interviews and making use of technical advisors from the FBI, Schiller sought to authenticate sections of the script in other ways. "When Mailer finished the screenplay and I started to structure and edit it, I sent it to Cherkashin and Sherbashin in Moscow for their comments. Surprisingly, they had very few comments except to say, 'If you ever come to Moscow to film it, we will cooperate.' And, when we went to film in Moscow we met with them. Much to my surprise, these two men, whose faces are not known to the world -- who aren't even publicized in their own Russian press -- agreed to appear in a scene in the film playing themselves. And it is really their stamp of accreditation to us, validating that part of the story as being authentic. They would not participate in a film that did not at least give an authentic representation."

"Oleg Kalugin, a former officer of the KGB who masqueraded as a journalist for a number of years, also assisted us," continued Schiller. "He described the safe room in the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C. and how the air conditioner was used to ward off the FBI from listening to them. Kalugin actually plays himself in the film in a scene. Again, that was another vote of support that at least the Soviet side of the story as it related to Hanssen -- the political points of view, the climate and all of that -- was correct."

Throughout the mini-series, there are many moments when Hanssen is talking to himself in the mirror. "The mirror became a metaphor for what was going on in his mind," says Mailer. "I'm just guessing that this is the sort of dialogue that that went on in his mind." Adds Schiller, "This is what the character is emotionally going through at that moment which drives those scenes…."

When asked if there is evidence that Hanssen would talk to himself in the mirror, Schiller responds: "Without naming members of the family, they told us that several times -- since they all shared a couple bathrooms - that they would be ready to enter the bathroom and discover that their father was there. And, they would hear him talking. On one occasion, the door was open and another member of the family did see him talking to the mirror. Another member of the family saw him just standing and staring into a bedroom mirror for a long period of time, so one can only assume he was in very deep thought."

Schiller and Mailer also interviewed the psychiatrist who had interviewed Hanssen for 43 hours after he was incarcerated. Says Schiller: "He told us that Hanssen was haunted by his father's voice and various things that his father had done to him. This psychiatrist told us that based on his experience, people with a childhood that haunts them usually find that the mirror becomes a safe haven -- and yet at times the mirror attacks them."

Schiller managed to coordinate for several of the actors to meet with the appropriate real-life people to help them with their roles. Hoschouer met with William Hurt (who plays Hanssen) and David Strathairn (who plays Hoschouer). A few of Hanssen's children and the Hanssen's Opus Dei priest, Father C. John McCloskey III, met with Hurt and Mary-Louise Parker (who plays Bonnie). Wayne Knight met Paul Moore, one of several FBI agents that contributed to Knight's composite character, and Ron Silver, who actually attended Hanssen's sentencing with Schiller, met with David Major, who contributed to the composite character of Hanssen's FBI boss played by Silver. "So by the time we started filming, we had gathered the confidence and the support of the closest members of that family and others who met with our actors," says Schiller, with a satisfied smile. "This was not something that we entered blindly."