TORONTO — “It’s probably not our best moment in politics,” offered George Clooney, who was on a stage at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday being asked about the message of his movie, “The Ides of March.” The film’s take on American democracy left some viewers here feeling stunned, if not disillusioned.
But Mr. Clooney, a festival veteran, took their dismay in stride. Films, he said, don’t lead the political culture, they follow. If “The Ides of March” reflects a mood of cynicism, it is probably “a good thing” to get it out in the open, he argued.
In a white golf shirt and flashing his trademark smile, Mr. Clooney looked chipper, though he was dealing with the demands of his third major film festival, with two pictures, in less than two weeks. “The Ides of March” — for which Mr. Clooney had credits as a writer, director, producer and star — had its festival debut in Venice just 10 days ago. “The Descendants,” a family drama directed by Alexander Payne, with Mr. Clooney in a lead role, screened last weekend at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, and is set for a public showing here on Saturday evening.
Mr. Clooney and his team have avoided identifying the flawed operatives in “The Ides of March” with any real persons, living or dead. His own character, Gov. Mike Morris, an idealist, charmer and presidential candidate, has more than a few points of contact with former Senator John Edwards, though Mr. Clooney on Friday played down the similarities.
“This was written long before the John Edwards thing broke,” Mr. Clooney said of the persistent comparisons being made between Mr. Edwards, who was caught in a scandal over infidelity and the misuse of campaign funds, and the Morris character.
As for the Morris handlers — Stephen Myers, played by Ryan Gosling, and Paul Zara, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman — it is impossible not to find traces of the political strategist Jay Carson. A former campaign press secretary and adviser, Mr. Carson is now chief executive of the C40 Clinton Climate Initiative, which combines programs started by New York’s mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, and former President Bill Clinton.
While on the campaign trail with Howard Dean and others, Mr. Carson was joined by Beau Willimon, as a staff associate. Mr. Willimon later wrote a play on which “The Ides of March” is based, with substantial changes by Mr. Clooney, Mr. Willimon and the other writer, Grant Heslov.
“Beau, George and Grant really get it,” said Mr. Carson, who spoke by telephone last week from New York after returning from the film’s premiere in Venice. Mr. Carson is not formally associated with the movie, but his experiences and persona figure in it, and he has remained in touch with Mr. Willimon.
The impulse behind the play and movie alike, Mr. Carson said, was not to present a narrative with clinical accuracy. Rather, it was to show what might happen if political players who are constantly facing “ends versus means” choices went too far. Devilish bargains range from a routine compromise on selecting a vice presidential candidate to the kind of sublimely evil deal that conceals some seamy truths about a candidate in order to advance a gleaming agenda.
One of the film’s core conflicts, Mr. Carson acknowledged, matches a moment in his own life, when he was the press secretary to Senator Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, and declined a position with Hillary Rodham Clinton, then the hottest ticket in Democratic politics.
“They had taken a chance on me at a very young age,” Mr. Carson said of the Daschle camp, echoing a speech delivered by Mr. Hoffman’s character as the plot, with its portrayal of tribal warfare among Democratic politicians, spirals into the “Godfather” zone of loyalty to the family. (Mr. Carson did eventually go to work for Senator Clinton, when she was a candidate in the 2008 presidential race). (nytimes)
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