Keaton: Jack [Nicholson]'s role. I'll tell you, when it comes to the line, the great line, you're sitting there... it's just a reading. There's no cast, no audience, but I'm still sweating.
Thinking, how the hell do I pull this line? What do I do? I'm not going to do Jack, and then you go, wait a minute, maybe you should do exactly Jack. How do you something that is so iconic, by one of the
great film actors of all time, and a friend.
And the Joker to your Batman. How did you handle it?
Keaton: I took a route that I felt was authentic to me. We all knew it's coming... you're reading it, and you go, god, this is good material. This is really good. This reading is going so well, but
in the back of everyone's head, they're going, that fucking line is coming up. Everybody knows. Everybody knows it's on the horizon.
So, how was your delivery different from his?
Keaton: I can't remember, honestly. I figured, you have to sell it with the power that it has, but don't even think of doing Jack. And then you go, wait a minute, maybe just do Jack. What am I,
crazy? Why don't I just steal from him? So I found my own way. But I couldn't tell you what it was. I remember I felt this thing hit me in the head, a rolled up piece of yellow legal pad. It wasn't at that
line, you can't handle the truth, but some point before it. I look around. Sorkin's looking at me, and he gives me the okay sign. The reading was good, but I thought, well,
|
|
maybe this is just one of those things that won't happen [that we do a movie together]. And this comes around. I liked the subject matter. This happened to me in my late teens, just when my consciousness
was raised in this area. He talked to me about a couple of the parts. I said, honestly, I got a bunch of stuff going on, but I like the Ramsey Clark thing. I know it's not a big thing, but I just want to
do something with it. I thought, maybe I never get to do another one [with Sorkin]. You got to grab these guys when you can get them.
Clark, LBJ's Attorney General, seemed one of the few government guys who actually had a conscience and weren't trying to stack the deck against the protesters, in disclosing his belief that law enforcement
started the clash with protesters.
Keaton: I liked the impact of Clark, he's an interesting character. Some of these guys in the legal profession, they're heroic. He also defended some, I'll say, tricky people, but he was a bit of a
renegade, a true American, and to me, a real patriot. I liked the moment. As I was reading this script, I thought, [Sorkin's] writing is so good that if he pulls this movie off... you're rolling along and
just when you think, am I going to get bogged down in the minutiae of the legalese? Then he hits you with a scene, or a line, that is either humorous or absurd, and all of a sudden it's like a jazz player
playing a sax, he's deep into some intricate things, and all of a sudden, boom, he hits some notes. And it makes you go, wow, I wasn't ready
|
