BlownPotential

Behind Cold Blood
An Exclusive Interview with the Oscar-nominated director of “Capote”, Bennett Miller

Celebrity scoop by Joel Fowler

I wait in the lobby of one of the last bastions of corporate conservatism in America today: The Mayflower Hotel on Connecticut Avenue in downtown DC. Foreign businessmen and visiting conventioneers mill about in their Brooks Brothers and Hugo Boss. This is the kind of crowd that believes casual Fridays mean wearing the blue suit instead of a charcoal gray or black one.

The feeling I have is one of misplacement in my khaki shorts and well-worn sandals. I feel like a vacationer, though I am the one who belongs here. I begin to imagine this must be how Truman Capote felt every day of his life, especially those five long years he spent in and around Kansas, working on “In Cold Blood.”

My subject today is Bennett Miller, the director of a new film, “Capote” chronicling that specific era in the author’s pursuit of the truth. When he finally arrives, Bennett prefaces our chat by saying he must leave soon, to hop on a train to New York City where his film will be shown at one of the many pre-Oscar festivals, but he assures me he is here now, and is happy to talk about this project.

The automatic observation one makes is Miller’s physical resemblance to his friend and screenwriter of this film, Dan Futterman, whom many people would remember as Robin Williams and Nathan Lane’s son Val in that star-studded remake “The Birdcage.” All he needs is a straight razor and a stiff comb, and Bennett could pass himself as both writer and director, which leads me to my first question…

Joel Fowler: You’ve had a long friendship with actor Dan Futterman that started when you both were around age twelve. However, “Capote” is the first time you are working together. Had you two attempted anything like this before?
Bennett Miller: No, it never occurred to me, and I never thought of Dan as a writer before. He just called me up out of the blue one day and said he was working on a screenplay, and I said, ‘ah… okay.’

But, at this point you were just a documentary filmmaker?
Yeah, I guess I had finished my first documentary (1998’s) “The Cruise”, and shooting commercials, and reading scripts, looking for my first narrative feature. And Dan called and told me about wanting to write “Capote”, and I was like ‘well, good luck.’ But, he finished that first draft on his own and rather quickly.

And the link to Philip Seymour Hoffman?
Well, Phil and I have been friends since sixteen years old.

And you all are from upstate New York?
Well, Danny and I are from Westchester (County), and Phil was from Rochester – well, Fairport (just outside East Rochester) more specifically. We meet when Danny and I were sixteen. Over that summer, we did a theater program together.

So, how did you three finally come together for this film?
Dan sent the first [screenplay] to me, and we talked about it over a couple of weeks before I made any sort of commitment. Because it’s a real big commitment – either you’re either really going to try and do it or you’re not (slight laugh). There’s no in-between.

So, once I decided [on doing it], we got together to determine our next step, which was our first step really, which would be to attach a credible actor to the film. There was no one else that occurred to us [than Phil]. There was no Plan B. Had Phil been into it, had he not said ‘yes’, I’m fairly certain this film would not have been made.

But, it sounds as if he felt pretty strongly that this story be told? Phillip is listed as an Executive Producer to this film.
Phil took a week to decide.

Did he voice any apprehensions?
Yeah, he did. About himself.

Really?
More so than us. He didn’t know if he was up to it. He didn’t know if he could do it.

Because the role was about an already known person?
Physically, Truman Capote was very different from Phil. It would mean he would have to transform himself in a way he didn’t know if he could do credibly. He [Capote] was an oddity. A smaller guy, and [it’d be] a very, very big stretch.

But once you get past the physical aspects, Phil had to appreciate the work, right?
That’s right. More so than the bizarre superficialities of this persona, his voice, his physicality, his weirdness – that’s all incidental. What was going on with the core of this character, a guy sickened with ambition and [was] wickedly talented. It’s a tragic drama of somebody getting what he wants and destroying himself – like the juicy big stuff, which is what an actor of Phil’s caliber wants to sink his teeth into.

Absolutely, I think the quirkiness will get Phillip Seymour noticed, but it will be the true character, the real work, that will make him stand out. So, how did you guide him in the developing of his Truman Capote character?
Well, he did it; he developed that character alone in a room. All I could do in developing the character, the physical stuff, was get him research materials. I could get him videotapes and photographs. But, as impressive and challenging as that aspect of the role is, it’s mostly a mechanical thing and that’s part of Phil’s job – to learn and to do that. I can’t do that for him.

So, did you have to tweak the script any to suit Phil or to bolster areas that are his strengths?
Oh yeah – the script was tweaked for maybe a year, a year and a half. But, it wasn’t just tweaked for Phil’s strengths, but also to make it a better narrative.

In that regard, Phil helped himself when we began improvising on the set. This is a real change for him, because Phil doesn’t see himself as an improvisational talent, when in fact he is. To me, that [improve] was what he needed, to go off script. So, a fair amount of the film is actually improvised. It seems to be beautifully written in such a way that makes explicit what the scene is about, but for example, the three party scenes, almost all of that is improvised.

But, those scenes sort of have that feel to it, especially the after performance party (where Truman reads excerpts of his novel in a public forum)…
Yeah, totally on the spot. The only line that was scripted was the guy walking in and saying, ‘you’re portrayal of those two men is terrifying.’ Everything else is just Phil channeling Truman Capote.

There’s one great line used to describe Truman’s connection to one of the Kansas killers, Perry Smith, “It’s as if Perry and I grew up in the same house. And then, one day, he stood up and went out the backdoor, as I went out the front.” It’s so accurate – is it an actual quote by Capote himself or a poetic device to tie the two characters together?
No, that was a line that Danny Futterman came up with. He was searching for a way for Capote to make explicit, to the degree that he could with Harper Lee (his friend, played by Catherine Keener), what this relationship [with Perry] was about. The line serves as an example to just how alone he was in this thing, because the one time he attempts to explain it to anyone, he fails. Her response is, “are you kidding me?” You begin to understand what those two men have, no one else will understand.

There seems to be homosexual undertones to the connection, but the viewer begins to really see Capote’s deep commitment of care that somehow Perry had been wronged.
Right. If there is something that feels sexually charged at all [in those scenes], that’s fine, but that’s not what it’s about. Like you were saying, there’s this component of care that was so characteristically Capote throughout his life. If he encountered somebody who was wounded or crippled in any way, he could not help but to give himself to that person… So, that attraction was; it was not sexual. It was an identification of profound compassion and care for this wounded creature that at his core was very, very similar to Capote.

An odd little website, GoldDerby.com, already lists Philip as an early favorite for an Academy Award nod as Best Actor. If that were to come true, if he was to be nominated for an Oscar or an Independent Spirit Award, what would that mean to you?
Well, I’d like to separate myself, and see this only from a director’s [point of view], but I can’t because I’ve known him for so long and he’s one of my favorite people on this planet. He’s also a person, and not just to me but if you get to know him at all, he has the effect of you wishing him well.

So, for him to receive credit or recognition on that level would just be wonderful. And anybody that tells you that they don’t care about the recognition of their peers, especially at that level, ah… there’s something wrong with them. They’re either not telling the truth, or they’re cynical.

Though it was developed from Truman’s biography, was there any consideration of renaming this film? The title, “Capote”, I think narrows the rich development of the nonfiction novel “In Cold Blood”. My gut reaction when I first heard about your film was ‘oh great, another biopic!’ when it was nothing of the sort.
Well, what happens is so often the working title becomes your title. We considered so many. In contention were “Answered Prayers”, which was the name of the book Capote was working on but never finished, which is quote at the end of the film.

I was thinking “Behind Cold Blood” and then the ‘IN’ could be highlighted in the title sequence.
Well, where were you when we were looking for a title! I see where you’re going with it.

So, after seeing the film, I actually went to Barnes & Nobles to pick up a copy of “In Cold Blood”, because I grew up a Capote fan, but forgot how powerful a story this one was. Were you a fan of his work?
When I got the script, the only thing I had read of his was “In Cold Blood.” Maybe I had read some short stories by then, I can’t remember. So that, and I had seen the Maysels’ documentary (Albert and David Maysles’ 1966’s ‘A Visit with Truman Capote’).

So, as a director, did you like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”
Well, I like it. I like it more than Truman did himself. He was very critical. He did not like the choice of Audrey Hepburn. It’s kind of a difficult movie.

One final thing and I’ll let you go. The MPAA gave your film an “R” rating, though it has no nudity, and shows only brief crime scene documents, but nothing worse than an episode of “CSI” or “ER”. What do you think Truman’s reaction to today’s almost puritanical America would be? Did you question that rating at all?
Well, no. But, you know what? It’s not a movie for kids anyway! What is rated ‘R’? 17? 16?

I think it’s either 17 or 18 to be without a legal guardian. [Editor’s note: The MPAA defines “R” to mean ‘no one under the age of 17 is permitted without a parent or adult guardian.’]
Are you serious? That’s crazy – if you’re 16, you should be able to see this movie, I think. But, you know what? I’m a director, meaning I’m a control freak, but when it comes to things I can’t control I just… I’m not going to win that battle, and who knows, maybe there will be more appeal because it’s rated ‘R’, you know?

Maybe creating the aura of taboo, where, certainly in my opinion, there was none.
You know, if I make a few more movies and get power… but I don’t know if it’s a bad thing or not.

Now, Danny is an accomplished actor. Did he not want a role in his own film?
No, he just didn’t want one, and there really wasn’t one for him. Before I knew he didn’t want to act in it, I thought about it, but to be honest to the original people, there was nothing [physically] for him.

I heard you filmed this in Canada. Was this to do mainly with costs (since this was an independent film) or was the area’s resemblance mirrors 1960’s Kansas better than modern day Kansas?
It was just the best place to shoot it. Winnipeg is [on] the same plain, the same agriculture, landscape, geography, architecture, extras and their faces. Where are you going to find those Great Plain’s faces? It turned out to be a great location for us.

So, if there were just one reason you’d want people to see “Capote”, what would it be?
Vanity, ego, you know… (giggles)… Um, beyond that?

Yeah, is there something artistically you’re trying to say with “Capote?”
There is and hopefully the film communicates it. I’m loathed to make explicit in an interview, because it sounds so trivial, but what it’s about is something a lot bigger than even Truman Capote himself. What the film is getting at is something that’s classically tragic and old as drama itself, but also is in American form. I think you can reflect on it as a particularly relevant and contemporary story of ambition and what one is willing to do to get what they want.