"Frost/Nixon"

Director Ron Howard in the mix of celebrity and politics

Director Ron Howard discussed his endorsement of Barack Obama during a Q&A with Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers following a screening of "Frost/Nixon" Friday, Oct. 24 at a fundraiser for Pelham Picture House in Pelham, N.Y. Howard endorsed Obama in Internet ads as his Opie character from "The Andy Griffith Show" with Griffith and as Richie from "Happy Days" with Henry Winkler as the Fonz.

Howard told Travers a bit sheepishly that he always thought celebrities should stay out of politics, but it was the first time in his "50 years in show business," he said, that "I felt strongly that an endorsement was worth doing."

The 1977 post-Watergate interviews between TV host David Frost and the disgraced president Richard Nixon "changed the relationship between politics and journalism forever, says "Frost/Nixon" p.r. The film, adapted for the screen from Peter Morgan's Broadway play, is a dramatic retelling of the story of how the lightweight British talk show host was able to elicit an apology from president for his abuse of power. Frank Langella and Michael Sheen reprise their roles as Nixon and Frost in the film.

Howard said he was "riveted" by the original interviews. "I was looking for clarity," he said. Seeing the play with his wife in London, he knew immediately that he wanted to make the film. Luckily for him, he said, Universal agreed with Howard and his "indie model" for "Frost/Nixon."

Howard said that after the Watergate scandal, people thought the abuse of executive power would never happen again. "It resonates today," he said. "That's the dramatic link."

Both Frost and Nixon's reputations were on the line with the interviews. Each thought he could manipulate the medium of TV for his own benefit. Frost, who put up his own money for the interviews, hoped the “get” would result in “a cascade of candor” from the president and would lend him journalistic legitimacy.
Nixon hoped a soft interview could help rehabilitate his image as a statesman and gain sympathy from the American people.

Howard's challenge was to make the material visual, he said. He did this by letting secondary characters get their viewpoints across, enabling viewers to “connect emotionally” with the film. He also wanted spontaneity, which he achieved by letting the actors improvise, which "liberated" them and "broke up what they were used to.”

Langella caused a fuss when he asked to be called “Mr. President” on the set. The resulting tension created an unease which carried over into filming and shows on screen in the Nixon character. Langella was not doing an impersonation, Howard said, but he masterfully incorporates Nixon’s physical and vocal mannerisms which helped him develop the character.

Sheen, who played Tony Blair in Morgan's film “The Queen,” plays the ingratiating jet-setting playboy Frost with the right blend of insecurity and bravado.

Frost recognized “the reductive power of the closeup,” Howard said. A defeated Nixon’s facial expressions captured on camera in the last interview were more eloquent than anything Americans had heard.

“Frost utilized the medium to its greatest effect in a democracy,” Howard said.

For more about the movie, see www.frost/nixon.net.