ScreenCrave.com » Grant Heslov

Interview: Writer/Producer Grant Heslov on Ides of March

Damon Houx — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:00:18 +0000

Grant Heslov met George Clooney in the early eights and a friendship was born. Both were struggling actors, and while Heslov had a number of key supporting roles throughout the 1990′s (including True Lies and Dante’s Peak), his friend George’s career grew to superstardom. Their friendship stuck, and the two have been writing and producing partners for nearly a decade. The two reworked the play Ides of March for the big screen, and Heslov talked about their working process and the film.

Obviously there’s going to be some kind of reference to Dean’s campaigns, but where were you pulling from to create the Morris Character?

When we optioned this play, someone came up to us and said “you’re doing the Howard Dean play, right?” And I said “Huh? I didn’t know that.” So I talked to the playwright and the producers of the play and they said no. Beau (Willimon) worked on the Dean campaign and that’s true, and it’s where he learned about this world, but for George and I, quite honestly that’s not an interesting campaign to write about. This is a made up campaign. George and I – along with Steven Soderbergh – did this show called K-Street, and we lived in D.C. for fourteen weeks immersed in politics – all we did was talk to politicians, and talk politics for this faux show, and that was really our research, this is where we did our research that’s mostly what we drew from to take the play and open it up.

Knowing what you know from having written it, would you still vote for a Morris?

You mean if knew he (Spoiler excerpted) and did that whole thing? I think I would vote for him, but not if I had seen the scene in the kitchen. If I knew that scene I wouldn’t.

But whomever you talk about – be it Kennedy, Obama, George W. Bush – there are moments like that.

I’m sure there are, I just didn’t write them. It is a double standard of sorts, but personally I don’t care what a candidate’s extra-circular activities are if they’re the right candidate. It’s interesting because the first scene we wrote was the kitchen scene because we knew that’s where we wanted those two characters to confront each other. And then we went back to the beginning to figure out how to get there.

And that broke the story for you?

Yeah. We had the source material, and we knew who some of the characters were, and we knew we were going to set it in this campaign, and we wanted it to be a short amount of time, just jammed in in the middle of things.

When putting the film together, how important was it to divest your personal feelings from the storytelling? Or did you?

I don’t think we did. The Morris character he’s the kind of guy I’d want to vote for. And it’s not everything he believes is what I believe, it’s that he’s willing to stand by his convictions, he doesn’t want to deal or compromise. There’s nothing wrong with compromise – he doesn’t want to compromise on certain things. But slowly but surely he gets hammered down. That was more interesting to us – how that comes about. How it’s virtually impossible to get through a campaign without F-cking yourself.

This theme is a loss of innocence, it seems like the loss of innocence is the scandal, but there’s a bigger compromise that’s mostly off-screen. Where do you see the loss?

Thematically it’s interesting to me to hear you say that, because to me the film’s less about loss of innocence and more about betrayal – let me take a step backwards. George and I had been talking for a long time about taking a character and run him through the ringer – a morality tale, a big old fashioned morality tale. One of the things we keyed off is the Michael Coreleone in The Godfather. He’s the innocent in the story, but he’s not that innocent to start with. And just like our character, he’s not innocent, you can’t be at that level and be that way, but at the end we wanted the character to go through an earthquake kind of change and make those huge decisions. So when I read the play I thought “here’s a great world to set our idea in.” And so that’s what we did. To me it’s more about betrayal. Stephen is betrayed, he certainly does betray, and pretty much everyone in the story is compromised.

You mentioned The Godfather, The War Room’s come up, The Lee Atwater documentary, what were your reference points?

All the President’s Men. The thing about that film is that you know what’s going to happen in the end but it’s still a thriller. That’s what we wanted to do. We wanted to keep twisting and turning it, and have people if not on the edge of their sit a little forward.

Giving the shift that happens at the end, where do you see the characters going? How much did you think outside of the 100-115 pages of the script?

I don’t think we do think, I don’t think we ever had a discussion about the next day, but I would imagine all this stuff is forgotten, and it goes away. I mean we do think the right man is elected. We think he’s the right guy, but at what cost, that was the question to us. The price is both of their souls, and that what was interesting to us on a grander scale.

In 1982, you loaned George money, and since then you’ve been friends, but he’s become a superstar. What’s changed?

He never paid me back the money, I always have that over him. The truth is we were friends before we worked together, and we’d be friends after, so friendship overrides everything. It’s a very easy working relationship. We don’t fight much; we have a lot of fun. It hasn’t changed – we just spend more time together.

What is the writing process like between you two?

I’m at the keyboard, George writes on pads, and we just go back and forth. Sometimes we use cards, but not always. With this one we didn’t it was pretty straightforward to us.

As two actors working together are you bouncing off each other as actors when you’re writing?

Not so much in the writing it, once we have a draft we do a read through, and read all the parts, and see if something sounds stupid coming out of our mouths, and then maybe we’ll call people in from the office and read it for them, get a little feedback.

Do you think, as an actor working on a script, “this is some good red meat.”

Yes, you know when a scene feels right.

I was picturing you affecting a Foghorn Leghorn accent while you read the script.

We do, we’ll do all kinds of silly stuff while reading the script. It’s interesting, you really have to get out of an actor’s head when you have to write because actors only care about their part, and it revolves around their part. As a writer you know what the purpose of scene so you have to get out of that space. Because acting is a micro-focus. You’re focused on your arc, but that’s a tiny piece of the puzzle. It took a while to get out of that.

Did you look at Primary Colors, because it’s about a similar terrain?

Not really, I saw it when it came out. Not because I didn’t like the film, but because it’s a different kind of film than that. This film I hope feels slightly thriller-istic, you get taken on this kind of ride, that was more of a comedy.

When did you know Mr. Clooney would be playing Morris? And did that change the role?

We knew it when we were writing it. It didn’t change it, it just – we knew that he would be saying those words, so we mostly wrote them, but he wrote most of those speeches for himself, so the words were something he would say as a candidate.

When did Ryan Gosling come in?

We always were interested in Ryan, we got pretty much everyone we wanted for their parts.

Was there a role that got you interested in Ryan?

I’d been a fan since The Believer. We wanted him to do Leatherheads with us, but he couldn’t because he was doing something, so we’ve always wanted to work with him, but this was the best one.

Ryan mentioned that George playing this character could rub off on his political activism and interests, did George ever think about that?

People are going to think he’s more liberal than he is? He’s not a politician, and he has no aspirations. If you were George would you want to go into politics? He’s got the greatest life in the world.

There’s a certain cynicism to fuel the story, but he’s also out there working for causes and believing in them. How do you get in the headspace for the writing?

I don’t think we’re that sophisticated. We want to tell a specific story, so there’s no dipping your foot halfway, you have to tell it. We’re both cynical and both hopeful – I can’t totally speak for him – we’re all seeing what’s happening right now with politics and big business and sports. Sometimes I’m cynical. But I’m also hopeful – it’s harder to be hopeful, but you can’t avoid hard work, at least that’s what I tell my kids.

Ides of March opens October 7. Check it out.

George Clooney in The American Featurette

Krystal Clark — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:12:01 +0000

Do you want to watch George Clooney prepare to murder someone? He’s always had looks that could kill, but it turns out his weapon of choice is a gun and not his face. For his upcoming film The American, he plays one of the best of the best in the world of assassins and over at Yahoo, they’ve released a new featurette that delves into his twisted character and this twisted story…

If you sift through all the compliments that everyone is giving Clooney, you can see Grant Heslov who serves as one of the film’s producers. Heslov not only produces films but he’s a veteran actor and he also directs. As a matter of fact he co-starred with Clooney in Leatherheads and directed him in last year’s The Men Who Stare at Goats. He has a very impressive resume, that many people don’t know about.

As the video states, The American’s director Anton Corbijn comes from a background in photography so we’re anxious to see the photo book that goes along with the film. The shots look amazing with their color and composition and tone. The film takes on a dirty and gritty subject like murder and illustrates it in a very polished and pristine way. The magic of cinematography always amazes us.

The American is scheduled to hit theaters on September 1st.

What do you think of the featurette for The American?

The Men Who Stare At Goats: Movie Review

Mali Elfman — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:30:54 +0000

Ready for a bit of dry humor with your war film? Actually, it’s quite hard to call Grant Heslov’s latest film The Men Who Stare At Goats starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges a war film. It’s more of a film about the crazy Jedi-knights who may or may not really exist in the US military. With a film like this you know what you’re paying for, the title tells you everything you need to know. It’s a film that knows how to laugh at itself without losing any of the power behind it.

Check out our review below…

The Players:

Director: Grant Heslov
Cast: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges

The Plot:

Inspired by a real life story, a top-secret wing of the U.S. military is exposed when reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) encounters enigmatic Special Forces operator, Lyn Cassady (Clooney) and the duo set off on a mind-boggling mission. A legion of “Warrior Monks” who call themselves “The Jedi-Knights” appear to have psychic powers and can read their enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. With the program’s founder, Bill Django (Bridges) missing Cassady sets out to find him, but renegade psychic Larry Hooper (Spacey) gets in his way.

The Good:

Jeff Bridges: Ewan McGregor was amazing. George Clooney is not his usual charming self and yet you still can’t take your eyes off him. Kevin Spacey just flat out nails his role. But Jeff Bridges it the fucking king. In a room full of A-list talent all pushing themselves, Jeff Bridges shows why he is and always will be an actor of his own caliber. Each actor puts in a solid performance that feels like it was meant for them, but Bridges will absolutely blow you away.
Humor: It’s not your typical comedy, there’s a lot of serious subject matter presented in a way that makes you feel uneasy about laughing out loud but it’s definitely there. Perhaps why Bridges stands out the most is because he feels completely comfortable with what he’s doing. He takes his role seriously and it’s both endearing and hysterical to watch.
The Depth: It’s got a lot of layers for something that looks like a slapstick comedy and goes by the title “The Men Who Stare At Goats.” They’re not afraid to go to the dark side of humor, while at the same time, making light of things that could be serious.
The Opening Line: Before the movie even starts they tell you that “More of this is true than you think.” To me this epitomizes the tone of everything that you’re about to watch. If you don’t find that line funny, this film probably isn’t for you.

The Bad:

Pacing: It did feel like it was a touch slow, although I mainly blame that on the fact that at the screening I attended the volume was far too low. At times I did find myself straining to pay attention, but I’m not sure if that was the film or the experiences’ fault.
In Need of More Music: So many films overdo it with unnecessary manipulative music. It’s great that they didn’t over do it, but it did need a touch more to keep up the pacing and to add color in a few of the slower scenes.

Overall:

It’s all about finding the comedy in a world gone mad. This film will make you think and take you along for a ride. And if that isn’t enough for you, just take another look at the cast, their performances alone are enough to make this film worth your while.

Rating: 7.75/10

Check out the film in theaters November 6th!

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

George Clooney Is Moving To Sony

Laura Aguirre — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:21:19 +0000

George Clooney will be moving his production company Smoke House Pictures from Warner Bros to Sony, which is currently negotiating a two-year deal with the celebrated actor and his production partner Grant Heslov.

For many years, Clooney has been a member of the Warner Bros. family, producing films such as Michael Clayton and Good Night and Good Luck. In the beginning, Clooney’s previous production company Section Eight was partnered with director Steven Soderbergh. But now, Clooney is moving from the Burbank lot to the Culver City lot as he will release his upcoming film Men Who Stare at Goats with Overture Films next year.

Smoke House still has a few projects in development at Warner Bros. and they will remain there with the exception of Men Who Stare at Goats, which will be directed by Heslov.

It’s an odd swap to make considering both studios have had a lot of success this year. Warner Brothers recently released one of the biggest hits of the year, The Hangover and is about to release, Harry Potter. Sony has District 9 coming up and although Year One wasn’t a huge success Angels and Demons definitely brought it some big bucks.

So what’s this move about? Was he just looking to move somewhere closer to home?

What do you think of Clooney’s move from Warner to Sony?

ScreenCrave.com » Grant Heslov

Interview: Writer/Producer Grant Heslov on Ides of March

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George Clooney in The American Featurette

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The Men Who Stare At Goats: Movie Review

The Players:

The Plot:

The Good:

The Bad:

Overall:

Rating: 7.75/10

Photo Gallery:

Trailer:

Related Posts

George Clooney Is Moving To Sony

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