MOVIE/ MINISERIES & REALITY ISSUE

WilLFailin’ PALINEARNEmmyGlory?Jay Roach with Julianne MooreRoach Forsakes Comedy to Tell the Story of Election ’08By Diane HaithmanJay Roach’s political movies span the spectrum:not from conservative to liberal, butfrom drama to comedy. Likely to be nominatedat Emmy time is HBO’s Game Change,the story of Sarah Palin’s vice presidentialnomination, written by Danny Strong,based on the book by Mark Halperin andJohn Heilemann. Roach also collaboratedwith Strong on HBO’s Emmy-winningRecount, about the 2000 presidential race. ButRoach is casting a vote for comedy with hisAug. 10 feature The Campaign, with funnymenWill Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis astwo Southerners vying for a seat in Congress.He’s also developing a Watergate film basedon the memoirs of the real Deep Throat,former FBI agent Mark Felt.AWARDSLINE: For a series, an Emmy can save a bubble show fromcancellation. What does Emmy mean to a made-for-TV movie?JAY ROACH: Getting noticed by the Emmys for a TVmovie is an even bigger deal. Series are up and runningcontinuously, but a TV movie hits once and runs a fewtimes, and unless it gets noticed, it gets forgotten. OnRecount the awards attention was very good for thatfilm; people discovered it later down the line.AWARDSLINE: It seems like TV is virtually the only place to seefilms about political subjects.ROACH: There was a time in the ’70s when studios weremaking more movies that had more of a political pointof view: The Candidate (1972), All the President’s Men(1976). It doesn’t seem very easy these days to set upthese kinds of movies in the feature world. But I didtalk about this story back during the campaign, evenwith a couple of studio people, before HBO bought thebook. Even before I heard about the book, I was tryingto convince people that being in the room where theymade these decisions would be a really compelling film.AWARDSLINE: The book also includes a lot of information aboutHillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Why did you focus on theSarah Palin story?ROACH: When I found out about the book, at first I wasinterested in making the Obama-Clinton story, which Ithought was great too, but a little more unwieldy. Evenwithout Sarah Palin, the final sprint to the finish linewas going to be a very contained, chronological story.It was a pressure cooker with a ticking clock.AWARDSLINE: You also chose to focus behind the scenes, with verylittle re-enactment of Palin’s speeches and public appearances.ROACH: We had all seen what happens in public. Thereal suspense would come from revealing the pressuresthat campaign managers face, the forces that pulledthem to consider Sarah Palin over (Joe) Lieberman or(Tim) Pawlenty or (Mitt) Romney.AWARDSLINE: Palin’s emotional meltdown as portrayed byJulianne Moore is a revelation. What kind of researchwent into that?ROACH: We talked to so many people, trying to get theright tone. It wasn’t a breakdown; it was just a severeform of stress and pure humiliation. After the film, Ifound even people who definitely weren’t fans of herswere able to relate to her more. Yet I thought it wasthe one thing she would deny – and eventually diddeny. That Katie Couric interview must have been theworst fall in a few minutes of screen time of any politician.I would have been in a fetal position on the floorin a bathroom.AWARDSLINE: There’s now a generation of people who rely onsatirists like Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart as notonly their first source of news, but also their only source of news.What do you think about that?ROACH: That’s an interesting question, because I’m oneof them. It’s tough to find excellent journalism even oncable networks, which you would hope would be moreindependent. I mean, forget local television – how longago did local television stop being a great place to findout what was going on in the world? I don’t want tode-legitimize it too much; there are some fantastic journalists:Wolf Blitzer, Rachel Maddow. But I often findthat Jon Stewart has it down, and even Saturday NightLive to a certain extent. You can get the news in all itspainful truth, and also get a layer of ironic commentaryon it; you get multiple things at the same time.AWARDSLINE: Is that what you are doing with The Campaign?ROACH: I’m in the middle of it myself, doing a satirical,comedic movie about a campaign where everythingis very pushed, very silly. I’m very anxious about ourpolitical system; the events of Game Change are myanxiety dreams. And yet here I am, trying to get peopleto laugh their asses off. You are the stand-up comic onthe Titanic, which is not necessarily that reassuring.Ed Harris as John McCain and Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt18EMMY AWARDS PRINT EDITIONS 2012