Production
Many changes were made from Mary Gaitskill's original short story, which had to be significantly expanded and given greater depth in order to be made into a feature-length film. Lines of dialogue were changed; Lee's statement, "I'm so stupid" became a fantasy-sequence cry of "I'm your Secretary," which the director thought far more "celebratory." Additionally, the ending of the story was changed to give a more positive outcome to the relationship. Steven Shainberg stated that he wished to show that BDSM relationships can be normal and was inspired by the film My Beautiful Laundrette, which he feels normalized gay relationships for audiences in the 1980s.
A central component to the film, the office spaces of Edward and Lee, took form after two years of planning by Shainberg and production designer Amy Danger, who had collaborated with Shainberg on several projects. The desire to have the office feel homemade and express Edward's interest in the growing of plants led Danger to juxtapose a natural decor in the office with a predominantly artificial outside world. Speaking of her choices Danger compares the office with the rest of the film's locations: "All the materials I used were natural: natural wood, bamboo, ironwork ... If I wasn't using natural materials, it was natural colors, like the botanical wallpaper." In contrast, "everything was fake ... I covered Lee's house in plastic sheeting, and used artificial, manufactured colors." Although the interior sets were carefully constructed, the filmmakers did face some location-related challenges. Notably, in one instance the filmmakers accidentally obtained shooting rights for the wrong park. Gyllenhaal encouraged them to hastily shoot the required park scene anyway, without permission, while crew members distracted the local police.
Speaking about Secretary's tone and atmosphere, Danger says "With this S&M material, we could go into a dark place... Steve and I wanted the total opposite: that the nature of this relationship freed to be their natural selves." Because of this atmosphere, Danger says "Everybody kept saying, 'When are we going back to the office?'" It was funny, because the rooms weren't any smaller in the house, and it wasn't any more difficult to shoot. It was because you wanted to be in that space."
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