This is from entertainment.inquirer.net
LOS ANGELES - A president who is fascistic and divisive, whose rhetoric incites a wave of right-wing nationalism and false narratives. Sounds familiar?
HBO's "The Plot Against America," starring John Turturro, is based on the late Philip Roth's eerily prescient novel of the same name. Published in 2004, Philip imagined an alternative history in which a
celebrity demagogue, aviator hero Charles Lindbergh - who was known as anti-Semitic - defeats Franklin D. Roosevelt and becomes the US President in 1940.
It's worth pointing out that US President Donald Trump also invoked Lindbergh's slogan, "America First," in his inaugural address.
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The novel is told from the perspective of a working-class Jewish family. John portrays Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf who becomes a supporter of Lindbergh (Ben Cole). Winona Ryder, Anthony Boyle, Zoe Kazan and
Morgan Spector also star in the six-part drama series created by Ed Burns and David Simon.
John, acclaimed for his collaborations with the Coen Brothers and Spike Lee and noted for his roles in "Barton Fink," "The Big Lebowski," "Do the Right Thing" and "Quiz Show," had the pleasure of
personally knowing Philip.
"First of all, I'm a huge Roth-head," the actor said of the novelist and short story writer who won a Pulitzer Prize for "American Pastoral." "I knew Philip Roth. He actually chose me to do an adaptation onstage when I was filming Quiz Show. That's how I first
met him.
"Philip wanted to do an adaptation of a one-man show of Portnoy's Complaint and he selected me to do it. We never actually did it because we couldn't decide on a director and I was really busy. But we
worked on it for a while and just by ourselves, too. So, I got to know him.
"And I like his book, The Plot Against America. It's an allegory in many ways. A lot of it is based on real things, what could have happened and the power of radio versus television. I did a reading of the
book at the 92nd Street Y (New York). It was Philip's request before he died to have nine actors - a baseball lineup.
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