Politics creeps into White House flick, actor says
2000-10-19 16:21
Los Angeles - Actor Gary Oldman says the politics at
the centre of his latest film, The Contender spilled
over into the editing room.
Oldman and Douglas Urbanski, his manager and producing
partner, said in November's Premiere magazine that
writer-director Rod Lurie bowed to pressure from Steven
Spielberg`s DreamWorks studio to recut the movie into
left-leaning propaganda.
The Contender which opened recently in the United
States, stars Joan Allen as a Democratic senator nominated
by the president (Jeff Bridges) to become vice-president.
Oldman plays a conservative congressman trying to derail
her nomination.
Oldman and Urbanski said they felt the actor's character
was the hero of Lurie's original script. But they say Lurie
agreed to cuts suggested by DreamWorks, which is headed by
Al Gore supporters Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David
Geffen.
The tone of the new edit vilifies Oldman's character,
Urbanski said.
"If your names are Spielberg, Katzenberg and Geffen, you
cant have a film with a Republican character who is at all
sympathetic being released on 13 October," Urbanski told the
magazine. The US elections are on 7 November.
Oldman said of Lurie, "To have a friend and director not
go in and fight for you is just deeply, deeply
disappointing. ... I am very hurt by it."
Lurie said he shortened the independently financed movie
by about 15 minutes after DreamWorks bought it, and at
Spielberg`s suggestion added "ennobling music" to an
impassioned speech by Allen's character. But Lurie said the
movie`s political stripes did not change because of the
DreamWorks deal.
Lurie said Oldman seems too caught up in his character.
"Gary is emblematic of what many actors go through: A kind
of Stockholm syndrome in which they begin to sympathise
with their captors, and in this case, the captors are the
characters they play," Lurie said.
- AP