We did a chapter. It was powerful.
"Then, David Simon, who's a big admirer, asked me if I was interested. I just love Philip's writing. I don't think there's been many successful adaptations of his writing because it's so interior. You're
inside someone's head and you're hearing the person, what he thinks.
"And it was also trunca-ted because it was six hours and this book is much more plot-oriented than his other books, which he wasn't that interested in. Obviously, now it has a different connotation around
the world."
The Brooklyn-born actor, who is also known for his performances in "Miller's Crossing," "The Night Of," "Monk," "O Brother, Where Art Thou" and, recently, "The Jesus Rolls" (which he also directed and
cowrote), added, "Even though Philip is writing about the Jewish community, I don't think it's just about the Jewish community. It has to be more than tribal. The resonance is right in there."
Asked if someone like Trump would have been elected in the 1940s, John answered, "I don't think he could be [a president] in 1940 because you had to be a really good speaker on radio. Radio is different.
Radio was the first thing that could get into people's houses. And there were people who were demagogues, who were very good."
For some people, Roth's depiction of Lindbergh as a
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white supremacist is a surprise. In a New York Times feature, the writer was quoted as saying about Lindbergh: "He was at heart a white supremacist and, leaving aside his friendship with individual Jews
like Harry Guggenheim, he did not consider Jews, taken as a group, the genetic, moral or cultural equals of Nordic white men like himself and did not consider them desirable American citizens other than
in very small numbers."
"History [education] is selective," the 63-year-old John asserted. "What you were taught was selective. So, we didn't know that FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) hated Lindbergh and didn't want him. Lindbergh
wasn't allowed to be in the Armed Forces until the end of the war. And that he's considered dangerous."
John was filming director Matt Reeves' "The Batman," but production was temporarily halted for two weeks in the United Kingdom due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the latest Batman movie starring Robert
Pattinson as the caped crusader, John plays crime boss Carmine Falcone known as "The Roman."
John joined a terrific cast that includes Zoe Kravitz (Catwoman), Andy Serkis (Alfred Pennyworth), Colin Farrell (The Penguin), Paul Dano (The Riddler), Jeffrey Wright (James Gordon) and Peter Sarsgaard (District Attorney Gil Colson).
"I'm playing the bad guy," John confirmed. "I loved Batman growing up, but I'm really a Zorro fan
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