CBS Sunday Morning interview (02/19/2006) - photo copyright © David Strathairn Online

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CBS Sunday Morning: Interview and profile
February 19, 2006
By Harry Smith

[ Article and partial Transcript: ]

He has a name no one can pronounce, a career no one can match and until his current role in Good Night and Good Luck, David Strathairn has been America's best actor you never heard of.

CBS Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith informs him that the people Strathairn works with describe him as an "actor's actor."

Slightly puzzled, Strathairn responds with a laugh and says that "You'll have to ask them what they actually mean by that. What the hell is an actor's actor?"

Here is the immodest answer. David Strathairn is a poster boy of an actor's actor. But even with supporting roles in more than 70 movies over three decades, he has remained in other actors' shadows.

There was A League of Their Own with Tom Hanks or The River Wild with Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon. Also, The Firm with Tom Cruise.

Strathairn learned his craft as a stage actor and set designer beginning in his student days at Williams College.

"The community of people there was really great," Strathairn says of his time at Williams. "Everybody was focused towards one thing, something that would last however long, and then it's gone. Plus, you could play with power tools, and table saws."

But Strathairn's career really got what it needed last year. He was chosen by actor/director George Clooney to play legendary CBS Newsman Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck. This time, George Clooney took a supporting role as CBS producer Fred Friendly, and Strathairn the lead.

The story is as neat and precise as Strathairn's hair and speech. Murrow risks his reputation by challenging Senator Joseph McCarthy at the height of his power in the early 1950s, when the nation was terrorized by McCarthy's communist witch hunts.

Good Night and Good Luck is nominated for an Oscar as best picture...and Strathairn as best actor. Being a Hollywood star is the worst role he's had to play.

When Smith notes that Strathairn appears uncomfortable with the limelight, the actor agrees.

"Well, I can't imagine anybody being in their comfort zone at one of those things. It's a gauntlet," Strathairn says.

Yet Strathairn appreciates his brush with success, after spending so long as an unknown.

"This movie is really kind of creating its own 'wow.'Everywhere it goes, it's like this, dust devil, that just creates all this activity around it," the actor explains.

The Murrow role came out of the blue with a phone call from George Clooney. Strathairn says prior to that moment, he had never spoken with Clooney.

"He just cut to the chase," Strathairn says of Clooney. "'I'm gonna make a movie about Edward R. Murrow and I'd like you to think about doing it. We'll send you the script,'" he recalls Clooney saying.

Strathairn's reaction: "Yeah, I was, all of a sudden the room turned to Jello."

Strathairn immersed himself in Murrow, whose news magazine, See it Now, set high standards for broadcast journalism.

The actor admits taking on Murrow was no small task. "It was very daunting. I think it's important when you retell a moment in history that you don't revise," he says.

Strathairn adds of the Murrow character, "He was quite a mountain to climb."

Both in the film and fact, former CBS producers Joe and Shirley Wershba have key roles: Patricia Clarkson plays Shirley. Robert Downey Jr. is Joe. The real Joe and Shirley knew Ed Murrow as well as anybody.

"I saw Strathairn for the first time in that studio in Hollywood. I saw him from the back of his head, I didn't see him from the face. Back of his head I says, 'Holy cow, this guy is Murrow, right from the back of his head,'" Joe Wershba recalls.

Shirley adds of Strathairn, "He channeled him. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen."

But the role of Murrow offered additional challenges. As a non-smoker, Strathairn had to cope with Murrow's chain smoking.

"I counted once, just for the fun of it, how many cigarettes I went through. It was 51 one day," Strathairn remembers.

The entire movie was shot in only six weeks. Strathairn says he was not quite ready for what is now his favorite scene.

"It was this beautiful shot when Diane Reeves is singing, 'How High The Moon' and Fred Friendly has just told Murrow about Don Hollenbeck's suicide and there is this amazing camera move. And you can see her reflection moving through the back of my head. And, just a silent moment that so much comes to bear upon him," Strathairn says.

Good Night and Good Luck came 25 years after his first movie, the independent film classic Return of the Secaucus 7. That and half a dozen pictures that followed were made with filmmaker John Sayles. For many years Sayles has lived next door to Strathairn and his wife and family, in the woods they love in upstate New York near Poughkeepsie, as far from Hollywood as they can get.

Sayles not only writes and acts in his films, he directs them.

"When working with David Strathairn, he was the only actor I would let stand behind me," Sayles says.

The Brother From Another Planet was one of those films.

"And I as director, who was also an actor, put other actors in front of me as I want to see what's happening; do we need another take. David was the only guy who I figured would do something cool," Sayles says.

Actors don't have to stand in front to admire him. In The Sopranos, Edie Falco did that lying down.

"His kind of acting is the kind of stuff I'm moved by," Falco says. "He's very sort of naturalist and very conversational and I never for a split second lost a feeling of concentration from him, you know, we were really very much in scenes together."

So why has it taken so long for David Strathairn to become famous? Sayles thinks he has the answer.

"If you are lucky early in your career you get matched with that role and lots of people see you and you are on the "A" list.

He's on the "A" list now and after the Oscars March 5th, Strathairn's name may finally be first on the marquee, but don't bet on him changing where or how he lives his life.

Asked if his Oscar-nominated role has changed his professional life, Strathairn said no. "It may have just mutated for a moment," he says.

[ Link to article ]

Good Night, And Good Luck interview (11/15/2005) - photo copyright © David Strathairn Online

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BBC News: Interview for Good Night, And Good Luck
November 15, 2005 (actual interview on September 21, 2005)
By Tom Brook

[ Transcript: ]

In Good Night, and Good Luck David Strathairn plays legendary American broadcaster Edward R Murrow, a news journalist who was bold enough to confront US Senator Joseph McCarthy, the man at the forefront of the anti-communist witch hunts in the 1950s. George Clooney, who directs, co-wrote and stars in the film, chose Straithairn for this key role, and the actor delivers a nuanced and powerful performance.

Strathairn had a lot to control in this portrayal, including the gestures and body language that defined Murrow; if he strayed just a little, it would fall apart:

"Yeah. Not only would I lose it, but the picture would lose it, and you'd be distracted; it'd be like pulling a little strand from this tapestry and the weave would start to collapse, and not be nearly as tight as it is. I think it's a beautifully crafted film. And that was a challenge."

Tom Brook: "When you say 'it's a beautifully crafted film', many would believe you. In what way did shooting it Cinema Veritι style, and in black and white, help convey the content of the film?"

David Strathairn: "The quality of the film is a homage to television; and in the fifties nobody every saw those guys except in black and white, so that is real. The Cinema Veritι feeling of being in a news room, with the energy of making the news, that was really great, that was really engaging and exciting for us to be on the spot and in the moment, not thinking we're preaching or framing something up or indulging in something. That had a Cinema Veritι energy to it."

Strathairn portrays Murrow as a man of principle, a journalist determined to get at the truth, not interested in injecting or expressing his own political beliefs. But this film is political and its supporters say it has a topical relevance.

It captures the days of McCarthyism, when a driven US Senator spread an atmosphere of intimidation in which people feared they would be tarnished as communist sympathisers for their dissenting views. Some say that's happening today, but now with a multitude of voices labelling individuals with certain beliefs not as a communist but as liberal in a derogatory sense.

David Strathairn: "It's ever more insidious the way it's being done today, because back in the fifties, you could say, 'Oh, there's the man who's doing it.' Today who's doing it, and when are they doing it, and of course you should ask why are they doing it. To put a label on someone which means one thing to one person and then another thing to another person. It's much more insidious and therefore ever more frightening, because it's confusing."

Whatever your political views, whether or not you agree with the film's critique of politics, big media and journalism and how it may relate to the present day, it's very hard not to admire Strathairn's acting accomplishments.

Good Night, And Good Luck interview (10/20/2005) - photo copyright © PBS

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The Charlie Rose Show: Interview for Good Night, And Good Luck
October 20, 2005
By Charlie Rose

[ Transcript: ]

CHARLIE ROSE: Welcome to the broadcast. Tonight, actor David Strathairn. He plays Edward R. Murrow in the film Good Night, And Good Luck. The film is directed by George Clooney. We conclude this evening with George Packer. His new book is The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq. Strathairn and Packer coming up.

[ COMMERCIAL BREAK ]

CR: David Strathairn is here. He plays Edward R. Murrow in George Clooney's film Good Night, And Good Luck. At this year's Venice Film Festival, he won for the best actor. Here is a look at the film.

[ TRAILER SHOWN ]

CR: I am pleased to welcome David Strathairn back to this table. Welcome back.

DAVID STRATHAIRN: Thanks, Charlie. It's great to be here.

CR: This is--everybody--this is an extraordinary film. And for those of us who do what I do and who have worked at CBS News, it's an extraordinary tribute to Edward R. Murrow.

DS: Indeed.

CR: I want to talk about that, but first the language; the script, I mean, wonderful little moments like we saw there in that trailer where Fred Friendly says, "Not me." I told him I was (laughs)

DS: (laughs) 'You're going to get audited this year.' 'No, not me.' 'You always were yellow.' I know. It's wonderfully clever in so many ways--the script. Grant Heslov, who co-wrote it with George, they spent a couple of years, two years plus developing this thing. And it's--the structure of the--I've seen it three times now, and the film's screenplay is as deft as anything in the film, because it has these little moments, these little ironic moments that sort of break through the tension. And it's critical time in the life of this, these people and this event. And they have the, you know, the wherewithal to just put little things in like that to take the edge off, let the audience breathe, and humanize the thing. It's really wonderful.

CR: What do you like about the movie? You, as someone who loves movies?

DS: I love how it is--it's so well composed, like a piece of music. It's tight. The theme is consistent. Sure, it changes gears and changes keys, but the theme is--everything points to the issue of this event, McCarthy versus Murrow, and what they are talking about. The music. Dianne Reeves, her--the wonderful, amazingly clever use of her as almost like a Greek chorus.

CR: Exactly. She's the jazz singer.

DS: Yes, the jazz singer, which is, incidentally, those were Rosemary's arrangements, Rosemary Clooney's--

CR: Rosemary Clooney, his aunt, isn't it? Wasn't she his aunt?

DS: Yes. And her band. So there's, you know, that's just another one of the tributes that George is creating here. But I find it in many ways so tightly crafted, and the storytelling, the cinematography, it goes without saying, is just exceptional. The use of silences and sounds.

CR: The silence is one of the things I noticed. There were these moments in which you just sit and watch, and nothing happens.

DS: Yes.

CR: Except they move; the camera moves, and you see different faces.

DS: Yeah, I mean--

CR: But there's no sound.

DS: Robert Elswit's work in this is so--it's just so beautiful, because you have a black-and-white movie, and it's an homage to black-and-white films. And you think, 'Oh, well, this is, you know, nostalgic at best', but the camera work is so--well, for lack of a better word, modernistic, because it catches things on the fly. People are sitting there candidly being shot, not saying anything, but just with looks in the eyes. And it always has this traction to the next moment. And that's one element of the composition that I find so beautiful. And the editing. Steve Mirrione's editing is just--it's great storytelling.

CR: Did you know Murrow, other than just the fact that there was this celebrated journalist who had confronted McCarthy?

DS: That's pretty much my awareness of him, a celebrated journalist, a man who had set incredible standards and confronted Joseph R. McCarthy in the '50s. And my research was just opening up this vast--the man was vast, you know, in many ways. His trajectory of his life was so incredible, from Polecat, North Carolina to, you know, building tops in the blitz, tea with Churchill, and you know...

CR: When you began to think about getting your hands around this character, how important was the voice?

DS: George said, 'We're not making a bio-pic', nor was it his intention to impersonate or mimic. Maybe replicate, at least the physical demeanor and his relationship to the camera. And he was very generous in saying, do what you can. But a man of such particular technique and, you know, his voice was so recognizable and his mannerisms so sort of seminal, I felt it was really important to a least get the music of his voice.

CR: The music of the voice, the rhythm and the cadence?

DS: The cadence, yeah, the pace, and the way he would pick certain phrases out and highlight them, the way he would take the images that he wrote. And you know, that, I felt, was a big responsibility.

CR: You obviously know this, but I was told a long time ago, anybody who writes for television is that Murrow would, in a room with Friendly, dictate, because he wanted to speak what he wanted to say, and then they would capture the cadence of it and make sure that they--because he wanted to be sure that the language that was on the script was the language that was a natural coming out of his voice.

DS: Yes, yes, and it is very particular, his phrasing and his writing. It's an amazing combination of beautiful prose, and then there's very poetic images at the same time. It's always--the more and more you read it, it starts to flow like this--like oratory and storytelling at the same time.

CR: George gave you what, in terms of what he wanted? 'I just want you to maybe replicate but not'--that's it?

DS: Yes. 'We wanted to present an essence of this man, and do what you can. We'll have--Robert Elswit will set the camera up and we'll be able to see what it looked like back then, and put the framing the same way, and put you in position with the microphone, et cetera, so there will be really verisimilitude', but he was never saying, 'Come on, come on, can't you'--well, he did say once, you know, which--he said (laughs), 'Just do a little bit faster, but not funnier.'

CR: Murrow smoked all the time and, in fact, died of lung cancer.

DS: Yes, at the age of 57. People say they never saw him without a cigarette. It was like an appendage there, whichever hand it was in.

CR: Even on camera?

DS: Even on camera. Yes. And he didn't start to smoke, he didn't learn to smoke until he went to the lumber fields in his teenage years. They moved from North Carolina to--

CR: To Oregon? Was it Oregon or Washington?

DS: Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula. And that's where he learned to spit and cuss and drink and smoke. And he never looked back from there.

CR: You have had a chance here in New York to meet people who knew Murrow, who have seen the film. Joe and Shirley...?

DS: Wershba.

CR: Wershba, who were in the film.

DS: Yes, yes. Robert Downey, Jr. and Patricia Clarkson's part.

CR: And there are others here. Fred Friendly deceased a couple of years ago. His wife Ruth is alive and well. What do they tell you? Are people coming forward to tell you stories about Murrow or telling you, beyond the idea, that you got it?

DS: Yes. Joe and Shirley were there at the table reading--the first table reading of the script for everyone, for the crew, as many as possible, and Milo Radulovich was there. Ruth Friendly and her sons were there, and Casey Murrow was there, Ed's son. There we were with the people who had actually done this thing. And Joe and Shirley were really, very generous. They were very discreet and supportive. They never weighed in unsolicited. They had gone--George obviously approached them, you know, months before to discuss things, but they were there to give validation and inspiration to us. But they--Joe said, 'Well, you've got the haircut down. That's the way he wore his hair.' And Ruth was very supportive. She said, 'That was just great!', you know.

CR: Here's a scene. This is where Ed Murrow evokes Brutus and Cassius in Julius Caesar, and signs off with his signature line, which is, in fact, the title of the film.

[ FILM CLIP SHOWN ]

CR: Here is the clip of Edward R. Murrow in the same scene. Take a look at this.

[ ARCHIVAL CLIP SHOWN ]

CR: Wow.

DS: Every time you hear those words, it's so moving.

CR: Brutus and Cassius?

DS: Yeah, just the whole thing. He just puts these images and ideas together in such a pristine way. It's amazing.

CR: Why did George Clooney want to make this movie?

DS: Primarily, I think, it was a tribute to his father, to Nick Clooney, who was an anchor of a broadcast--

CR: In Cincinnati and somewhere in Kentucky, I think.

DS: And Murrow was his father's hero and, therefore, became George's hero. George spent a large part of his youth in the studios, in the stations. A tribute to the time. I think the '50s is a very--he loves that, the culture and the time. And to journalists in general, to the fourth estate, you know, how crucial it is. And it's something that he's very passionate about, he's very outspoken about, and very informed about. And I think it's something he feels that's necessary, very necessary to talk about today, at least to present it as--for discussion or debate of all the issues that sort of echo around in this film.

CR: Interesting that Murrow was reading a script, because Murrow said in this movie and said in real life, 'I'm reading a script because we want to get our words exactly right.'

DS: Yeah.

CR: 'We don't want this to be an ad-libbing. We thought seriously about what we want to say, and so I'm reading it.'

DS: Yeah.

CR: There is also this interesting idea that Murrow is you, McCarthy comes from Joseph McCarthy's film clips himself. He [George Clooney] didn't want an actor. Why was that?

DS: As George said many times that if they'd had an actor, people would have said, 'This guy's way over the top. It's too oafish. He's too arch, no one would believe him. And...

CR: Nobody could be McCarthy like McCarthy?

DS: Exactly. And it was amazing, to turn my shoulder after introducing the junior senator from Wisconsin, and there he is. It's--it was haunting. And galvanizing, too, because the world that was created out there in the studios was so complete. We'd put on our ties and grease our hair down, light up a stick, and off we go making the news, you know. (laughs) That was pretty exceptional.

CR: Here is another clip. This is where Murrow is closing in the film another program. Here it is.

[ FILM CLIP SHOWN ]

CR: Who was the character played by Jeff Daniels?

DS: Sig Mickelson.

CR: Who was?

DS: He was...

CR: At the time, president of CBS News?

DS: Yeah. He was right down, right underneath Paley at the time. Yeah. I thought for a while he was going to be Frank Stanton.

CR: I did, too. There was no Stanton character here.

DS: No, no.

CR: Frank Stanton is still alive, lives in Boston.

DS: Yeah.

CR: And a distinguished and a great man.

DS: Yeah.

CR: A great man, who defended his division later throughout his career, and almost was prepared to go to prison, in a sense, because of a contempt of Congress, which didn`t happen at the last moment.

DS: This team, this team as seen in the film go on to accomplish amazing things. Fred Friendly, how many? 10, 12 Peabody Awards himself. And Shirley Wershba became a producer of 60 Minutes. And Joe Wershba continued on in the cause. And the two fellows Reed Diamond and Tate Donovan play, Jesse Zousmer and Johnny Aaron, who produced Person to Person, they went on to be, you know, powerhouses in television.

CR: And you see the juxtaposition between Person to Person, which Paley created for Murrow to provide income--a show that Murrow didn't care a lot about.

DS: Yeah, not really.

CR: And you can see that.

DS: Yeah, yeah, they picked that moment with Liberace. And that was George's brilliant--he said, 'Okay, we're going to keep the camera on you and just remember, he didn't like doing this.' And camera creeps and lights go down, the show is over, and I'm--I give that sense. And it's, in a way, a very ironic, humorous moment.

CR: Here's another scene of the real Edward R. Murrow.

[ ARCHIVAL CLIP SHOWN ]

CR: Boy, he understood the power of the media. He understood, and sort of--there's a--we look for a wonderful speech he made in which I think this is--this segment is part of what the speech that the movie opens with and closes. He's giving a speech before the Radio Television News Directors Association, I think it is. I'm not sure this comes from that--yes, it does, in fact. October 15th, 1958. In 1960, he goes to the Kennedy administration as head of the Voice of America, wasn't it?

DS: Yeah, the information agency.

CR: USIA. 'This instrument can teach, it can illuminate, yes, and it can even inspire, but it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.'

DS: A very prescient guy. You know, this is 1958, and everything in that speech that he speaks of has come to pass in one way or another. The cross-pollination of news--

CR: And entertainment.

DS: And entertainment, you know, how now they're both--it's profit-driven. And you know, there's something, I believe it's in this speech or another one, where he said, 'It will be a dangerous day in American broadcasting when those who have the most money dictate the discussion in the marketplace of ideas.' And there it is.

CR: Yeah. Where do you go from here? You are working on a film that's going to be shot in New Hampshire?

DS: Yes, a small--small legs, in that it's another one of these wonderful little independent films that has put itself together. And a really wonderful story--kind of an American Chekhovian story about lots of people in this small town who cross paths, and they're carrying along their own little baggages and trying to negotiate the banana peels in front of them. And it's a very sweet, whimsical, kind of soulful little piece called Sensation of Sight.

CR: How many films have you done with John Sayles?

DS: Seven.

CR: Seven!?

DS: Yeah. Six or seven. I think it's six or--I always up it one, because... (laughs)

CR: Are you two best of friends, as well?

DS: Yes, we're very good friends, very good friends. Yeah, John is in many ways the same kind of chronicler as George has done in this film: picking a moment in some community of people that is very sort of comprehensive tapestry of characters, and a particular event that has resonance.

CR: And out of it is some matter of principle or some matter of character.

DS: Yes, and something reflective of, you know, larger--the society at large.

CR: It's great to have you here.

DS: Charlie, it's great. Thanks, man.

5 Eyewitness News interview (10/14/2005) - photo copyright © David Strathairn Online

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5 Eyewitness News: Interview for Good Night, And Good Luck
October 14, 2005 (actual interview on October 7, 2005)
By unknown

David Strathairn, who plays legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow in the new movie Good Night, and Good Luck, stopped by the 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS newsroom last week to talk about the new George Clooney-directed film.

"Murrow was a giant of a man," Straithairn told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

He said it was a challenge to get down Murrow's cadences, his posture, and how he related to the people.

"There was a lot of pressure to represent this guy," Strathairn said.

George Clooney is Strathairn's co-star in the black and white-flick. Clooney also co-wrote and directed the film. Clooney's father is a legendary news anchor in the southeast.

"He's a great director," Strathairn said, adding that Clooney had incredible passion for the movie.

Strathairn said by doing the movie, he's gained incredible respect for what journalists do every day.

"There's thousands of journalists out there doing Murrow work, my hat's off to them for fighting the fight," Strathairn said.

So, would Edward R. Murrow make it in today's world of journalism? Strathairn answered that question.

[ Transcript: ]

Coming soon!



NPR Radio: Co-interview with Grant Heslov for Good Night, And Good Luck
October 7, 2005
By Alex Chadwick
Listen to broadcast

[ Transcript: ]

ALEX CHADWICK: This is Day to Day. I'm Alex Chadwick, a radio newsman, but not like this radio newsman.

[ SOUNDBITE OF A MURROW BROADCAST ]

AC: That is Edward R. Murrow, the late World War II CBS reporter who performed so brilliantly then that he's practically been regarded as the St. Peter of broadcast news ever since. When the war ended, he came back to the States--and big changes. Murrow was well-equipped for TV, perhaps too well. His dashing good looks, his presence on camera the equal of his command of the microphone. But his intelligence, his skill as a writer, stretched and magnified by the horror of the war, were almost diminished by this showy new business.

[ SOUNDBITE FROM FILM ]

AC: That is Murrow as portrayed by the actor David Strathairn in the new film out today, Good Night, and Good Luck, the title from Murrow's sign-off phrase. This scene frames the movie, Murrow ruminating in a speech to his peers about what has happened to broadcasting and news. The film is directed and co-written by George Clooney and this man, actor and writer Grant Heslov.

GRANT HESLOV: This was a speech that George, you know, basically knew by heart. You know, his father was a newsman who did the local news in Cincinnati and as a journalist and writes a column. So this is a--really a speech that he grew up with.

AC: The speech is the subtext to the film. It occurs years after the main action in the movie, which takes place in 1954. Murrow watches the Red-baiting senator from Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy, and his reckless attacks on supposed Communists in government become a national crisis. George Clooney and Grant Heslov tell this story in black and white, and in that restrained palette they find rich, evocative tones to lure you back to long ago.

GH: The idea with the beginning, really, is we wanted people to feel like they were back in the '50s, give them a chance to get used to the black and white, give them a chance to sort of hear a piece of music and really be transported.

AC: Everybody is wearing a suit and looks good in it. Everybody's smoking. Everybody's drinking. It looks like the '50s.

GH: Yeah. I wasn't alive in the '50s and George wasn't, either. But we did our research. And, you know, everybody smoked.

AC: George Clooney, among the most popular actors in the world, thought about playing Murrow himself, but decided on a co-star role instead. He cast David Strathairn as Murrow. It works: the line of the jaw, Murrow's dark, brilliantine hair combed back, his lean frame that carried tailored suits with such elan.

DAVID STRATHAIRN: He was very conscious of camera. That elegance that he had, which I think was there from the word go as a young man, he was very conscious of. But inside that demeanor was a man who judged himself very critically. He never felt that he had got it right. He sweated profusely before each broadcast. And there was a tension in there which belied something much more fragile, I think, and vulnerable than the exterior demeanor that he had.

AC: As you play him in the film, there's scarcely ever a smile on his face. I mean, this is a serious time and it's a picture about a serious moment in his life. He's challenged. But there are other people laughing and smiling in the film and having a good time, enjoying themselves even though they're working hard. But not Murrow.

DS: I feel that he understood that everything ran downhill through him. He knew that in this particular event he was the one who was going to speak for all of these people, and he was very late in the game coming into it. Everybody was wondering, 'When are you going to go after him, Ed? When are you going to go after him?' 'cause other people had already. And when they talk about him carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and walking around the CBS News studios with--like a crown of thorns, and I don't think that was in any sort of religious intention. I think it was just that he was seemingly tortured by the responsibility upon him.

AC: The moment comes when Murrow has to decide to really go after McCarthy, knowing it is dangerous for him and maybe more so for his hesitant friend and boss William Paley, the founder of CBS. Murrow confronts McCarthy on television and in the frenetic newsroom, but the scene where Murrow challenges Paley, played by Frank Langella, takes place in the discreet executive suites of the network they have made together, the two of them, and the Clooney character looking on.

DS: That was a crucial moment and a kind of quietly crucial moment in the picture, because it represents the collision of news and entertainment. And I think we all sort of understood what that moment was about. George said after we'd gone through it a few times, 'Don't take your eyes off him. This is a life and death moment for more things than we know about. Just don't take your eyes off him.' And that set the ball in motion for this scene.

AC: The emotion that is in this film is all about Murrow's reluctance and doubt and sense of failure. That's you.

DS: Yeah, I'm not sure if it's me, but it's--it is Murrow. At once inside him, I think, was abiding hope, and at the same time a crippling realization that it was going to become something else than what he had hoped for.

AC: Television, you mean?

DS: Television. I was looking for a handle always in Murrow, in the research, in the pictures and everything, trying to find what was it that he brought back with him from Europe that people attribute his darkness to. I think it was his time on the streets of London, going down into the bomb shelters--where he got the phrase 'Good night, good luck' from all the English people saying that to each other--and doing a report on Birkenau after he'd gone and seen the...

AC: Concentration...

DS: ...concentration camps. I think something cracked inside him. I think he realized man's--the depth that man will go to be inhumane to himself. And he came back to the States carrying something inside that ultimately gave him the confidence or the energy or the will to go at Joseph R. McCarthy, because he wasn't going to let something like that happen again.

AC: David Strathairn plays Edward R. Murrow. He won the best actor award for the role at the Venice Film Festival this year in the new movie Good Night, and Good Luck. We also spoke with the co-writer and producer of the film, Grant Heslov.

IFIM interview (09/21/2005) - photo copyright © David Strathairn Online

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IFILM: Interview for Good Night, And Good Luck
October 1, 2005 (actual interview on September 21, 2005)
By Karen Harshberger

[ Transcript: ]

IFILM: This is IFILM. I'm Karen Harshberger. We're talking with David Strathairn. David, aside from the script, how did you prepare to play a legendary figure like Edward R. Murrow?

DAVID STRATHAIRN: "I went into seclusion, and tried to channel... No. (laughs) I read as much as I could, I listened as much as I could, and I looked at the footage--archival footage of the broadcasts that were used in the film as much as I could. I listened to his voice over and over and over and over, looked at photographs, experimented with cigarettes, and tried to figure out what it would be like to wear a tie and suspenders all day."

Is there a point, as an actor, that you let that go and you let it be what it's going to be? After you've studied him and figured out all of his idiosyncracies?

"No, in this one--I know what you mean and, yes, there are times where you just let that go. And you may do that more readily or actually do that more readily with a character that you create out of the ether, but not for a moment did I let go [of] images in my mind or in my ears or the feelings I had about him, because I just wanted to be as responsible to his memory as possible."

George Clooney said that he [Murrow] has a quality that he's holding the weight of the world on his shoulders, and that's something that you have about you. Do you think that's accurate?

"Well, I was carrying the weight of Edward R. Murrow on my shoulders everyday, so maybe that's what he's figuring out. That's maybe what he saw. I don't know, I don't know. If that's what he saw and that's how he called me, I'm grateful for that."

How do you think Murrow defined his job as a reporter?

"Good question. How would he have defined his [job]. There's probably a definition that's he's written that I didn't cross but by tint of all his action, he would have said it is time-honored profession. That it is the responsibility of the journalist to get the truth out so that people can make an awared-decision of how those truths impact their own lives, and its our responsibility to be as honest and as clear and as objective as possible."

Is there a difference working with an actor who is an actor himself?

"Yes, there is, because as an actor he understood and understands what an actor needs to do their best work. And he brought all of that experience and wisdom to this project. Yeah, there is a difference."

This was a quick shoot. Six weeks. A lot of choreographed shots that take a lot of rehearsal. Do you like working at that fast-a-pace?

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. But this pace was absolutely necessary, because that is the pace of the newsroom. That's another thing George brought to us: awareness of that; his experience in the newsroom. But this kept everyone in the moment and creating the news, and so there was no sense of indulgence or reflection or something. We had to, boom, hit the hot skillet and run it."

Last question: Do you think there is an equivelent of Edward R. Murrow today?

"No... Well, I'll put it differently. I think there are many equivelents. If anything, in some simplistic way, he's been fractured into thousands of journalists trying to do that same thing. For one particular person to exist, I don't think he could, just because of the nature of the media now. But I think he exists out there. I think every journalist is trying to, you know, carry on his legacy because that's the way they got into the business. He set a standard that will go on for as long as people are out there trying to tell the news."

At the Movies: Good Night, And Good Luck (09/02/2005) - photo copyright © David Strathairn Online

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At the Movies: Co-interview with George Clooney for Good Night, And Good Luck
September 2, 2005
By Margaret Pomeranz

[ Exceprt transcript: ]

DAVID STRATHAIRN: "Curiously enough, a friend of mine mentioned many years ago that Edward R. Murrow would be something you 'should' do. And it kind of went in and went somewhere back in the attic and I hadn't thought about it until George called, and I made this connection. 'Well, maybe something has made this long leap from the idea.' But, no, I don't go seeking those things. Very often the things you try to seek for are always out of your grasp. So it was kind of a gift from George directly to, you know, give me this responsibility."

GEORGE CLOONEY: "It wasn't a gift, actually. Had I not gotten him, we'd be in big trouble right now."

[ Link to full transcript ]

The Washington Post interview (09/19/2005) - photo copyright © David Strathairn Online

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The Washington Post: Co-interview with George Clooney for Good Night, And Good Luck
September 29, 2005 (actual interview on September 19, 2005)
By Paul Farhi

[ Excerpt transcript: ]

DAVID STRATHAIRN: "One of the brilliant things about the script is that in the end you have an objective experience about an issue that you can come at from many angles. It would have been a disservice to Edward R. Murrow and everybody in the picture, you know, historically to say that they were coming out on one side or the other. They were newsman, and that's what's great about it. They were doing their job as ethically and as professionally as possible, realizing at the same time that they could loose their jobs for it."