The director of the Netflix film, which stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Redmayne and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, reveals why it took nearly 20 years to get the project about the politically motivated prosecution of protestors made and why it couldn't be more timely:"I never imagined today would go so much like 1968."
Eight months after Sorkin filmed the protest scenes in Chicago, Abdul-Mateen was marching in Black Lives Matter protests in West Hollywood, as was Strong in Brooklyn."There’s power when a lot of people come together to protest out of anger, out of frustration," Abdul-Mateen says."Everybody has a role in the revolution; this film shows that."
As the project languished, Sorkin tried writing it as a play, ultimately spending 18 months on a fruitless effort to fashion a stage treatment."What I didn’t like was having a script in my drawer," he says."I was just thinking, 'Jeez, this is a good movie and it feels like it’s stillborn.'" Sorkin shot the protest scenes on location in Chicago and built a courtroom set in an old church sanctuary in Paterson, New Jersey, because none of the available courtroom locations in the Garden State conveyed the scope he wanted."If we’re saying the whole world is watching, I want a packed courtroom for six months full of press and spectators," Sorkin says."I wanted the big, cavernous feeling of the federal government and its power coming down on these people.
As Rubin, Strong is playing Hoffman’s conscientious jester sidekick, a role wildly different from the tragic, wealthy approval seeker he portrays on. Strong added some of his own dramatic flourishes, including painting words on his chest for one courtroom scene and bringing a remote-controlled fart machine to disrupt Langella’s imperious judge."I wanted to channel as much as possible that spirit of the merry prankster and of joyous dissent," Strong says.
Garbage Movie - Pure Oscar Bait
I just don’t get it, if this was made in the 90’s it would have been a TV movie 🤔
Protests or rioters?
It portrays vital lessons our country never finished learning from those days through today. More of us should have listened, more should now.
MonicaLewinsky Liberal Crap 🎈
MonicaLewinsky In the uK all forms of protest including single person protest where someone might possibly be inconvenienced is punishable by 10 years imprisonments. POTUS do not deal with the uK, we are a rogue nation
I'm really grateful he chose this piece of history period it was so important to understanding our nation's character both good and bad and was soon to be easily forgotten by the general public