Note: This is a year when we're hearing a lot about the late Dalton Trumbo. Our interview last month with Benjamin McKenzie delved into his new film production of Trumbo's Johnny Got His Gun. This month we're talking with Peter Askin, director of the new documentary Trumbo.
By Terry Keefe
Once upon a time, very long ago, in the good old days of the late 1990s, stories about the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Blacklist seemed like they were from a paranoid time in American history that would never be repeated. It was, in fact, 1999 when Peter Askin was directing the stage version of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in London, and he was given a copy of Additional Dialogue, a collection of the letters of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. There was interest in turning the letters into a stage play. And Askin would eventually direct that stage play, entitled simply “Trumbo,” as well as a feature film version of the same name which opens this month in theaters. At the time he was initially approached about the possibility of a play, Askin knew Trumbo’s name and a number of the famous films he had written, such as Papillon and Spartacus, but not much about his history or politics. Nonetheless, he found Additional Dialogue to be a welcome literary companion during his directing of “Hedwig.” Recalls Askin, “Additional Dialogue gave me great night time reading. I’d rehearse ‘Hedwig’ and then read 20 pages of letters from Trumbo. It seduced me and was a great way to end the day.” Still, he couldn’t have seen that the story of Dalton Trumbo would sadly become much more relevant to modern current events just a few years later. Says Askin, “It was pre-9/11 when I was introduced to Trumbo. The 2000 Presidential Election also still lay on the horizon. But by the time the stage play opened in 2003, we had Iraq, the Patriot Act, and John Ashcroft.”
Once upon a time, very long ago, in the good old days of the late 1990s, stories about the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Blacklist seemed like they were from a paranoid time in American history that would never be repeated. It was, in fact, 1999 when Peter Askin was directing the stage version of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in London, and he was given a copy of Additional Dialogue, a collection of the letters of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. There was interest in turning the letters into a stage play. And Askin would eventually direct that stage play, entitled simply “Trumbo,” as well as a feature film version of the same name which opens this month in theaters. At the time he was initially approached about the possibility of a play, Askin knew Trumbo’s name and a number of the famous films he had written, such as Papillon and Spartacus, but not much about his history or politics. Nonetheless, he found Additional Dialogue to be a welcome literary companion during his directing of “Hedwig.” Recalls Askin, “Additional Dialogue gave me great night time reading. I’d rehearse ‘Hedwig’ and then read 20 pages of letters from Trumbo. It seduced me and was a great way to end the day.” Still, he couldn’t have seen that the story of Dalton Trumbo would sadly become much more relevant to modern current events just a few years later. Says Askin, “It was pre-9/11 when I was introduced to Trumbo. The 2000 Presidential Election also still lay on the horizon. But by the time the stage play opened in 2003, we had Iraq, the Patriot Act, and John Ashcroft.”
The stage play, written by Trumbo’s son Christopher, included various celebrity actors reading the letters of Trumbo, a form of writing he undertook as a creative outlet when he was banned from most others. The film version of Trumbo shares with the play the structural element of the letters as the spine, and includes actors Michael Douglas, Joan Allen, Paul Giamatti, Brian Dennehy, and Liam Neeson reading selected letters. One major difference between the film and the play are the extensive interviews with Trumbo himself which the documentary form allows. “Trumbo’s actual voice helps to unify the other disparate voices of the actors who become Trumbo,” explains Askin. “ I didn’t know at first how much footage of Trumbo himself in interviews existed. Once we started digging into that, I knew we had something special. His voice and the idiosyncrasies in his speaking are so extraordinary.”
Trumbo was a true American original with a spine of steel, who had the courage to sacrifice just about everything he held dear in the name of Freedom of Speech. But aside from being a civil liberties hero, Trumbo is also presented as a three-dimensional man in the film, complete with contradictions. To give one example, Trumbo was a Communist but he also lived on a ranch, in what looked like a sort of prototypical American, near-cowboy existence. Askin acknowledges some of those dichotomies which make Trumbo such an interesting character to absorb. Says Askin, “He was a westerner. His family came out of Colorado. He watched his family go through the Depression and saw his father go bankrupt and struggle. That’s why I think he had that sense of the little guys banding together, and the idea of strength in numbers. At the same time, he worked hard for his money and he liked it. So he was a contradiction in a lot of ways, and also a bit of a contrarian. He’d tell you over a drink he was a Communist, but on the witness stand, he’d be damned if he was going to tell you!”
Trumbo was a true American original with a spine of steel, who had the courage to sacrifice just about everything he held dear in the name of Freedom of Speech. But aside from being a civil liberties hero, Trumbo is also presented as a three-dimensional man in the film, complete with contradictions. To give one example, Trumbo was a Communist but he also lived on a ranch, in what looked like a sort of prototypical American, near-cowboy existence. Askin acknowledges some of those dichotomies which make Trumbo such an interesting character to absorb. Says Askin, “He was a westerner. His family came out of Colorado. He watched his family go through the Depression and saw his father go bankrupt and struggle. That’s why I think he had that sense of the little guys banding together, and the idea of strength in numbers. At the same time, he worked hard for his money and he liked it. So he was a contradiction in a lot of ways, and also a bit of a contrarian. He’d tell you over a drink he was a Communist, but on the witness stand, he’d be damned if he was going to tell you!”
The film's website is at http://www.trumbothemovie.com/.
OUTSTANDING! A Must see. My nephew, Evan Robert Pohl worked on this film and he is a passionate, honest man of integrity. Any project he is involved with is most certainly thought provoking and well done! Not to mention the respected actors that participated. Don't miss this, go and see for yourself.
ReplyDeleteI am glad about your nephew working on a film about another passionate, honest man of integrity.
ReplyDeleteI saw the film and was moved to tears.