AThe 11 include ex-con Danny Ocean, card dealer Rusty Ryan, financier Reuben Tishkoff (Elliott Gould), professional card dealer Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), the Malloy brothers Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk (Scott Caan) to drive and care for the vehicles, electronics expert Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison), pyrotechnician Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle), pickpocket Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), Chinese acrobat 'The Amazing Yen' (Shaobo Qin), and retired con artist Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) to play the role of Lyman Zerga, an international weapons dealer staying at the hotel complex.
ARusty, early in the film when the heist is being planned, says "I'd say of the top of my head you're gonna need a Boesky, a Jim Brown, Two Jethros, a Leon Spinks, a Miss Daisy and the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever." Director Stephen Soderbergh, in an interview with TV Guide, explained: "First of all, [screenwriter] Ted Griffin and I completely made the terms up. We felt we had to come up with some funny, Damon Runyon-esque turns of phrase that weren't arbitrary we did sit down and think them out. So, Carl Reiner is the Boesky, as in Ivan, the powerful, rich magnate, inside kind of guy. Jim Brown is the confrontation Bernie Mac has with Matt Damon the 'don't mess with me or you're in for it' moment. The two Jethros are Casey Affleck and Scott Caan, the idea being 'we're going to need gear heads, car fanatics...some people who are total hillbilly under-the-hood guys.' A Leon Spinks is the disruption of the boxing match: A sporting event with some controversy to it that's what Leon Spinks means to me. The Miss Daisy association is driving; that was the SWAT van, a ruse involving transportation. The Ella Fitzgerald is the tape of the fake vault, which they're going to play back and have [Andy Garcia's character] Benedict think it's live. 'Is it live, or is it Memorex?'"
