THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 1995 TAG: 9511160538
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 117 lines
AT A TIME when the White House most needs a laugh, can a popular movie turn things around for a president who hasn't always acted presidential? The buzz about ``The American President'' has been persistent.
Michael Douglas stars as a young, widowed, Democratic president. Annette Bening is a Virginia lobbyist. They meet and promptly fall in love. Lurking in the background is Richard Dreyfuss as an ultra-conservative Republican senator eager to turn their romance into a scandal.
Douglas' president is believably human. Bening is so sleek and intelligent, what bachelor chief exec wouldn't invite her into the Oval Office? Columbia Pictures clearly smells a hit.
Playing the political card, however, could be the only stumbling block.
``Speechless,'' a comedy with Michael Keaton and Geena Davis as lovers on opposite sides of the campaign, was a resounding flop. Besides being a bad film, its political agenda no doubt kept audiences away.
Even a perceived agenda can sink good movies. ``The Right Stuff'' never found its audience, presumably because the public saw it as an endorsement for former astronaut John Glenn, then a promising presidential hopeful.
The morning after the world premiere of ``The American President,'' those involved in its making recoiled at the idea that they had anything in mind other than entertainment.
Bening, dressed in a tailored black suit, acknowledged that she and her husband, Warren Beatty, are liberal Democrats, but added that their politics had nothing to do with the movie.
``I don't take the stance that celebrity allows me to present my political views,'' she said. ``I'd feel a little uncomfortable about doing that sort of thing. Of course, I do feel that this movie takes a strong political stance.
``It's a good, Hollywood, liberal movie about people who want to change the world. It's a movie that is passionate about politics. But it's main business is to entertain.''
``The film is going to draw some heat. I don't mind that,'' said Douglas, sitting for an interview at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. ``But I'd play a conservative, too, if I liked the script.
``I was wary of taking the part. I thought I was too young to be the president. I was worried about making him vulnerable. But just going on the set, which was built to White House details, puts you in the mood. I came to realize how lonely it could be to be the president.''
``The project was in the works long before Clinton was even in the White House,'' said screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. ``It was originally a project for Robert Redford, but he wanted it to be more romantic and more a fable, almost a fairy-tale romance.
``Rob (director Rob Reiner) wanted it to have a specific political slant and he had concerns. He's really into environmental concerns. I'm really into gun control. Our president has both those agendas, but, still, we've got basically a love story here.''
Sorkin recalled bumping into Clinton in the hallway outside the Oval Office on a day he was in the White House researching.
``It was awesome to think that I was talking to the leader of the free world on such a casual basis.'' The film, though, did not depend on White House cooperation, he said. ``Many of those doors were opened back when Robert Redford was going to do the project.''
Still, the tendency is to ask, ``Who do they think they're kidding?''
The Clinton White House gave Sorkin and Reiner access to the White House at least five times. At one point, Reiner accompanied the president for two days to get a feeling for his schedule and day-to-day pressures. Both stars received private tours of the White House.
Bening first met Clinton on the campaign trail and has seen him since. Douglas met the president two years ago when his father, actor Kirk Douglas, was honored at the White House. He's been back several times.
It appears more than coincidence that President Andrew Shepherd (Douglas) skipped Vietnam, pushes a crime bill with a weapons ban and defends flag-burning as an example of how democracy works.
Shepherd has an academic background. Clinton was once a college teacher.
Shepard's popularity plummets when the ``character problem'' comes up. When the movie was in production, Clinton faced the Paula Jones scandal and Congress was investigating Whitewater.
Casting, too, invites comparisons. Michael J. Fox is the domestic policy adviser, the youngest confidant in the White House. It's no coincidence that, in stature and hairstyle, he resemble George Stephanopoulos, Clinton's senior for policy and strategy. Fox is a longtime acquaintance and modeled the character after him.
David Paymer bears a resemblance to pollster Stanley Greenberg. Others say Martin Sheen, who plays the chief of staff, resembles Thomas F. ``Mac'' McLarty, Clinton's lifelong friend and mentor.
A Clinton supporter, Sheen said his private interests have nothing to do with the role, which he took over after Morgan Freeman dropped out. ``I'd gladly play a conservative if the bag of money was big enough.''
Sorkin did no particular research on Virginia, or Virginia politics, in creating the character of Sydney Wade, the smart, sexy lobbyist played by Bening.
``Everyone always thinks of Virginia as the cradle of the country, the beginning of Democracy,'' he said. ``That's why it came to mind. But any specific policies Sydney has were purely coincidential.''
But the screenwriter did spend two years working on the speech Douglas makes near the end of the film.
``It was as important as any speech a real president issues,'' he said. ``It has to redeem him and spark the audience.'' As a hymn to the austerity and prestige of the office, it is a potent political weapon.
All hands, though, maintain that the romance in ``The American President'' is most prominent. The president is a man in extraordinary conditions who even has trouble ordering flowers. While the film is being sold as an entertainment, there is no question that a big hit would help the Clinton campaign.
In present-day Hollywood, it is unlikely that any film would be made on the World War II exploits of, say, Sen. Bob Dole. The argument might go that that was done already with ``PT-109,'' but that was a different party and a different era.
Meantime, everyone agrees on one count: The White House could stand a good laugh. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
CASTLE ROCK ENTERTAINMENT
Annette Bening and Michael Douglas star in Rob Reiner's new romantic
comedy, ``The American President.''
by CNB