A REAL-LIFE HERO
Eastwood explores ‘tragedy’ of ordinary man wrongly accused in 1996 terrorist bombing
Lately Clint
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF Eastwood has developed a penchant for making movies about real-life heroes, from a U.S. Navy Seal to “Sully” Sullenberger to civilians who thwarted a terrorist attack on a train.
But for close to half a decade, the five-time Oscar winner has thought about the story of Richard Jewell, the security guard who saved thousands of people at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics from a bomb explosion. Jewell was initially praised as a hero, before the media falsely accused him of being a terrorist who had planted the device. Jewell, played by Paul Walter Hauser (I, Tonya, BlacKkKlansman), was exonerated, but not before his life was ruined. He died at 44 in 2007.
As Eastwood approaches 90, there’s an impulse to want to try to revisit moments from his past. But the filmmaker has his eyes peeled forward, always looking toward the next project.
“No Mickey Mousing around,” he smiles.
Eastwood and Hauser spoke with Postmedia in an exclusive interview.
Q What drew you to this story?
Eastwood It’s the great American tragedy. It’s the ultimate drama, in a way, because he’s a real-life hero who has been completely screwed over by the public and the media’s rush to make a judgment.
Q You’ve been drawn to acts of real-life heroism recently. Why are these types of tales inspiring to you artistically?
Eastwood I just enjoy them as stories and I can see them as I’m reading it. This was a real example of that. How could someone get screwed over so bad? There have been many cases in life that have gone that way, but it’s so odd. One day you’re on top of the world and the next day you’re at the bottom of the heap. This was a good example of that.
Q You’d been attached to direct Richard Jewell for several years. Why was he a character you couldn’t let go of?
Eastwood You felt for him right away and you felt for his family right away — his mother and his friends. The guy had a nice little life going. Sure, he made some mistakes, but he was just a regular Joe. Then all of a sudden he got screwed completely. Hauser
He’s just a regular guy. I think that hopefully he feels real, so people, when they watch the movie, will say, “Oh, I know a guy like that.” It’s an important story to tell. It’s not just a notable tragedy ... we’re trying to right the wrongs of that false narrative of him.
Q We hear terms like “fake news” nowadays and what happened to Jewell was really an early incarnation of that.
Eastwood We’ve had a lot of people commenting on that. It’s as pertinent today as it might have been when it happened 23 years ago ... the unfairness of it all. Here you have a guy who gets a wonderful break then all of a sudden it gets taken away from him and everyone abuses and trashes him, to different degrees. That’s a tragedy. You’d be rooting for the guy if you met him.
Q Did it dim your view of the media?
Eastwood It was more the speed of which it all takes place. ... Everything about them was judgmental.
Hauser They were trying to piece together a picture that didn’t exist. That was painfully obvious when you look back at all the evidence and see that everything was circumstantial. The grenade Richard had in his home was hollowed out. It was war memorabilia, and in any other house in Georgia you might find something like that. It was very convenient for them to take those elements of him and then try paint the picture to match their narrative.
Eastwood When I was a kid, we all had those types of grenades. ... They were good little items for kids. I think I had one somewhere.
Q Why was Hauser right to play Jewell?
Eastwood Somebody said to me, “Did you see, I, Tonya?” and I had, I loved that picture. And then someone suggested Paul and I remembered him. He looked like Richard Jewell and later on, when I went through all the material on Richard Jewell, he seemed right.
So I met him, and I came away thinking, “This guy was born to play this.” He looks like he could be his twin. It was set up at Fox a few years ago, but it fell apart ... someone in there either got greedy or crazy or whatever. But earlier this year, I thought about taking one more look at that.
So we found Paul and then we started to think about who else could be great in it and it just fell together in a matter of weeks.
Q Paul, there are a lot of supporting stars, but you really have to carry this movie. What tips did Eastwood gave you?
Hauser He reminded me to be confident in the fact that I was right for the role. Being the lead of a film and working with a celebrated studio like Warner Bros. and working with Clint and (screenwriter) Billy Ray and this cast is very intimidating. They didn’t make me feel intimidated, they were warm and collaborative, but I was intimidated.
But he kept telling me that this wasn’t a fluke and that I could really pull it off and do the job. That was great advice. It was great to have someone just say, “Don’t overthink this. Just go in and do what you do. That’s why you’re here.”
Q What do you hope young people, who don’t know the story of Richard Jewell, take away from this film?
Eastwood He’s somebody people can identify with. You can look at this story and see a time when you or someone you know was falsely accused of something. There’s a certain pathos to it. Richard’s a common man, just trying to learn a noble business — law enforcement — and be a productive member of society. Sure, he has his flaws and he’s done a lot of dumb things, but we all have along the way. What happens to him is the ultimate screw-over.