Holly Hunter suits up as US prosecutor in ‘The Comey Rule’
LOSANGELES » HollyHunter has been entrusted with playing an array of realworld women, from tennis great Billie Jean King to a cheerleading mom gone astray to her latest role, a federal prosecutor caught in the maw of politics.
In Showtime’s “The Comey Rule,” the Oscarwinning actor (“The Piano”) was cast as Sally Yates, whose decadeslong career imploded along with that of FBI director James Comey and others serving in the Trump administration.
For Hunter, the project’s main draw was playing Yates, “who has enormous integrity, and brought an incredible positive, ethical energy and intellect to the Justice Department,” she said. The two-part drama debuts 9 p.m. EDT Sunday and Monday.
In Yates’ 2017 Congressional testimony on Russian election interference, she came across as poised and exacting, befitting a lawyer who reached the level of deputy U. S. attorney general (and, for 10 days, acting attorney general, until she was fired after refusing to enforce a travel ban on Muslims).
As Hunter became more versed in Yates’ role in events surrounding the 2016 presidential campaign and the election of Donald Trump, her respect grew — even more so after meeting her fellow native Georgian.
“She’s got a great sense of humor. She’s very, very real, very down-to- earth,” Hunter said. “She’s an enormously optimistic woman. ... I think that there are a lot of people in government who are incredibly optimistic and have real hopes, real dreams about things that they want to accomplish.”
Comey, played by Jeff Daniels, and Brendan Gleeson’s Trump occupy center stage in the drama from writer- director-producer Billy Ray, an Oscarnominated screenwriter for “Captain Phillips” and “Shattered Glass.” Ray adapted Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty,” supplemented by interviews.
Yates, who is brieflymentioned in Comey’s account, gets her say here. In one scene, she recalls her work on a lawsuit in which an all-white jury found for an older Black woman whose land was at risk of being taken.