McCarthy's actual response to Murrow was fascinating to see; it surprised me how modern it was. He talked about how he would "not be deterred by ... the Murrows ... the Daily Worker, or the Communist Party itself" -- that sort of blurring with a broad brush.

Saddam Hussein with 9/11.

When you first saw that footage, were you surprised that it wasn't more successful at the time than it was?

Have you seen the whole show?

No.

That's the thing to see, because the problem is we pulled the best McCarthy stuff. McCarthy is clearly pretty drunk when he's doing it. I mean, he runs out of ways to attack, so then he starts to slur, and he gets slower and slower and slower and slower, and he then he just starts pointing at ... he pulls out charts of China and shows how they've turned into Communists. Murrow was a master of looking in the camera and telling you the truth. McCarthy had met his match ...

It's an inspiring portrait, but, you know, Murrow did pay a price. You never romanticize Paley too much, which seems key, because while he granted him a lot of freedom, there were still consequences for Murrow in going after McCarthy, which are, of course, very real today.

There were consequences while he was doing it too. He was going to do the Liberace interviews. When he first started doing "Person to Person" he thought he was going to be interviewing Oppenheimer and Eisenhower and Einstein, which he did, but he also ended up doing, you know, "At home with ..." And he was friends with the people, so they'd all like to do it. But, you know, I watched ones with Dean Martin ... and you watch them and they're fine, they're great. But he hated them, hated them, but that paid him money. And he liked that, and it gave him the ability to keep "See It Now" on the air.

Still, you know, everybody understands that today. I'll do a commercial film so I can do two or three "Syrianas" and "Good Night, and Good Lucks." It's part of the tradeoff. And the idea that reporters are not doing their job is not necessarily the truth. The truth is, every one of those guys, for the most, during a presidential press conference, wants to say, "Hold on a minute, let me ask you this." But if they do, they get put in the back of the room and they don't get access anymore, or you're Maureen Dowd and you get your credentials pulled. Then you lose access. And they don't want to lose access -- and not the reporters as much as the companies they work for, the magazines and the television shows they work for. So there's complications, you know, to all of this. I am completely optimistic, but it certainly is a cautionary tale of all of our history, all of it, as we know, and you and I have heard this a thousand times, but it's true, we're doomed to repeat it if we don't constantly and diligently go back and sort of recalibrate and start over and go, "Let's get back to the basics again."

Looking through your credits, you've written a little before, but this was your first, really big-time writing job. And you had to do serious research. Did you enjoy that?

I really loved it because I'd written a really bad movie of the week with a friend of mine. He did a great job and I just kept screwing it up, because I was trying to make a movie of the week out of it, basically about some of the same stuff; it was Murrow and McCarthy, but it was Murrow mostly, and I fictionalized characters and ...

This was never made?

No, it was never made. We wrote it for CBS, though. And then I went away and it didn't get made, and about three years later, in the middle of all this stuff going on in the world, all of a sudden I had a long talk with my dad about it and I said, You know, I think I have to do this like a reporter, like a reporter would, like you would. And he said, Well, you've got to have two reliable sources for everything, you know. And I said, Fair enough. And then we just started double-sourcing everything, and it was interesting. So when you see Joe Wershba get caught by [McCarthy aide] Don Surine and handing him a HUAC [a House Un-American Activities Committee folder with intelligence on Murrow] and telling him what's in it, that happened. All of those scenes happened. So to us it was a fun thing to watch Joe Wershba on the set with us going, "That would never happen" and, 83 years old, standing around going, "Don't do that; they would never do that."

I would also think doing your own research would give you so much more confidence as the director and also now, while you're promoting the film.

There's a funny thing that happens when actors go to promote a film. Basically, you're just answering questions about what you were doing in the role. No one questions your intelligence. As an actor for many years, believe me, no one questions your intelligence. But when you direct a film, it's always, What were you trying to say and what do you mean and what were you saying about that -- which suddenly makes sense. You have to explain to them what you were thinking and what was going through your head. Which is a very different experience. It happened with "Confessions" as well. I enjoy it because it's fun, but it was certainly a ... it does help to be well informed on the subject matter.

I know that Participant Productions is putting together a Web site for the film [full disclosure: Salon.com will be contributing its content to the site] to build a certain kind of media awareness. What are you hoping it will achieve?

I tell you the truth, we stood at the Venice Film Festival at the end of [the screening] and, you know, the place just stood up and we got this beautiful, long standing ovation. And every single time I was asked a question -- you do a junket, you know how there's 40 people a day for three days, and usually it's "Do you work out?" and "Who are you dating?" -- but there wasn't a single one. It was all questions about the [movie], and I felt ... Well, look, if this sort of brings about a debate or people appreciate it for what it is, that's all you're doing it for. That's the only reason you're doing it.

I went to the Golden Globes when I was nominated. I've never been to the Oscars. I remember when I won the Golden Globe a few years ago [for best leading actor in a comedy for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"] and I got up and I was, like, "Yeah!" I was really excited about the whole thing and took about 15 minutes to call all my friends, and then you sort of set it up on a mantle. It sits there and you forget about it in about 10 seconds. What you realize is that the work is what you love and what's fun and what's exciting, and all the other stuff that you get caught up in sometimes is not nearly as fun as doing the job. And that's where I'm really lucky. Most people don't get to do what I do, and they certainly don't get movies that I'm trying to get made made. And you know, they'll take that away from me pretty soon. You only get it for a little bit. So when you do it, you might as well do it and get in some trouble.

I've read that you talked about being disappointed about the results of other artistically ambitious projects, like "Solaris" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind."

It wasn't so much the financial result. I was sort of disappointed at the marketing on both of those because "Solaris" was being sold as a sci-fi movie, which it wasn't. It was an independent art film, basically, shot at a studio. And I thought "Confessions" in a way didn't get a real fair crack at it. But at the end of the day, you know, I got to make both of those films, and they will sit on that shelf right next to "Batman and Robin" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" And it will be an element of a career and I'm proud of them.

But I'm wondering, with a movie like "Good Night, and Good Luck," what your standard of success will be, because it's important; it could be influential, but not necessarily embraced by a mass public in the way that an "Ocean's Eleven" would be.

I tell you, the funniest thing is, this one might be surprising. This one actually has sort of a different vibe to it. You know, they're preselling tickets like crazy in Italy, based on reviews, and not based on me, because obviously they're not selling it based on me. I'm not the lead in the film.

And you look like hell!

I look like shit, man. But, you know, the whole thing is an interesting one because it sort of strikes a chord with people on both sides of the aisle, and I find that to be interesting. And maybe it's not such a polarizing film -- I don't think a conservative can argue with the facts. You might be surprised on this one, you know; it doesn't have to make a whole lot to make money. I think we might do OK here.

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