Alan Arkin adds comic relief to ‘Canadian Caper’ thriller
Alan Arkin based Lester Siegel, the former hotshot producer he plays in Argo, on “half the people I know in Hollywood.”
Arkin, 78, provides comic relief in Ben Affleck’s tense hostage thriller, opening Oct. 12, teamed onscreen with John Goodman.
They play Hollywood insiders who help the CIA buffalo Iranian officials with a false story about filming a Star Wars ripoff called Argo in Tehran as a means to spirit U.S. hostages out of the country under cover of being members of a Canadian film crew.
“I based him on everybody!” said Arkin of the acerbic Siegel, a role that could well see Arkin pick up his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He talked to the Star about the role in Toronto last month when he was here for Argo’s world premiere at TIFF.
The Tinseltown ruse that’s central to Argo is based in truth. It really was used to help get six American hostages out of Iran in January1980 after they were sheltered in a highly risky move at the Canadian Embassy. They were provided with Canuck passports by then-ambassador Ken Taylor, who even drove them to the airport for the flight out of the country, an event dubbed the Canadian Caper.
The Argo script was penned by Chris Terrio and based on a 2007 Wired article by Joshuah Bearman. Affleck directs and stars as real-life CIA exfiltration expert Tony Mendez, whose involvement, along with the phony movie setup, wasn’t made public until 1997.
“He (Siegel) was written as an amalgam . . . a composite of several different people,” Arkin said. “I did some research and I realized that what I was reading in the books is not necessarily what I was reading in the script, so I just abandoned the books and stuck with the script.”
Goodman also plays a real-life character, Hollywood makeup artist John Chambers, who won a special Oscar for his efforts on Planet of the Apes (he also created Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock ears on TV’s Star Trek).
Mendez went to him with the idea to spirit the hostages out of Iran under the guise of being a Canadian film crew scouting locations for a movie called Argo. Chambers and Siegel were tasked with making it look real with ads in the trade papers and some industry press coverage to avoid raising suspicion.
Arkin’s onscreen chemistry with Goodman provides for a slew of funny moments as they do all they can to make the fake movie seem legit.
“We never met before this film, but we got along immediately,” Arkin said. “It just feels like an old friendship.”
Arkin also can’t say enough about Affleck as a director.
“It’s a damn good film. Done by a master. He has a complete command of the medium,” he said.
“He runs a very tight ship without it being rigid. He knows what he wants and he’s very clear about it,” Arkin added, later comparing him to legendary American director John Huston. “He’s not autocratic at all . . . he’s wonderfully warm, charming and very easy to get along with, but he has a very clear vision about what he wants the movie to be about. That’s great. I love it when someone has a clear vision.”
That’s big praise coming from Arkin, an Oscar-nominated actor, director, producer and writer. Arkin was nominated for Best Actor for Norman Jewison’s The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming (1966) and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968) and finally won the statuette for his hilarious turn as Grandpa Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine in 2006.
“You work with Alan, and you can’t help but see the footsteps of Hollywood history,” said Affleck in a conversation after Argo’s world premiere. “You think about The InLaws and The Russians are Coming or Catch-22, Glengarry Glen Ross, all the way up to Little Miss Sunshine. This is a guy who’s been in great movies for literally decades and decades. He’s still really sharp.”
Affleck credits Arkin with bringing the comic bits that help ease the tension in Argo. “If we didn’t have humour in this movie, I think we’d be dead,” he said.
“You believe him as this slightly over-the-hill producer who was successful 20 years ago, doing vaguely schlocky movies. You believe he has the bombast to push this fraud through, but you also believe he has the character and integrity that he would want to put himself and his reputation on the line to help with this mission.”
The plain-talking Arkin was also glad to get back to Canada to promote Argo, however briefly. He’s proud of his two Genies ( Improper Channels and Joshua Then and Now) and he and wife Suzanne Newlander have a home in Nova Scotia that he wishes he could visit more often.
“I love Canada! We have a home in Canada, in Cape Breton, and I haven’t been there in a couple years and I miss it terribly. But I have to stop getting work,” he joked.