Mi Sloane Director John Madden and Writer Jonaan Perera on Making a Film About U.S. Politics

Photo: Kerry Hayes, EuropaCorp 2016

The KCET Cinema Series continued its winter series on Tuesday, November 15 with a screening of Miss Sloane at ArcLight Cinemas, Sherman Oaks. The film stars Jessica Chastain as a Washington D.C. lobbyist prepared for the biggest fight of her career when she goes up against the gun lobby.

Following the film, KCET Cinema Series host Pete Hammond led a Q&A session with director John Madden and first-time screenwriter Jonathan Perera about Miss Sloane. An edited portion of the interview appears below.

The KCET Cinema Series is generously sponsored by the E. Hofert Dailey Trust. The winter season runs on Tuesdays through December 13.

On how the U.S.s recent election impacted Miss Sloane.

John Madden: We finished shooting the movie in April. We actually only finished the movie three weeks ago, but when I saw the first assembly of the film, I thought, OK, it sort of shaped up into what we hoped and intended it to be, although that doesnt always happen, as you know. It doesnt mean the film isnt going to work, but it may mean the editing process is a longer process. I thought, we should press to get it out now. It was slightly connected to the election, but not in any sense other than we thought the milieu of the film, the circumstances it deals with, which is responsible gun regulation, would be a very prominent topic in the presidential discourse as it were.

As it turned out, of course, other topics pushed that out of the way and the ones that were left seemed to have even more relevance to what the film actually is... the political process itself and to do with women in politics, in particular.

Its not accidental that it came out now. We werent trying to cash in on it, we just didnt want to get behind the politics. But, we had no sense at all that it was going to become such an extraordinary and epochal event, which I think it is.

On the genesis of the script.

Jonathan Perera: Ironically, this is a script I wrote without the intention to show to anyone. I was living in South Korea. I was working as an elementary school teacher and I had some vague intention of being a screenwriter at some point in the future. I thought, this is a subject that really interests me. I wanted to write this not because I thought it would get made. I didnt even think I would get representation for the script. I wrote it simply as an experience, as an exercise.

The genesis of it was an interview I saw on BBC News because a man I had never heard of before called Jack Abramoff... I had not a clue who he was. For those of you who dont know, he was a very high-powered D.C. lobbyist who spent time in jail for various corrupt lobbying practices and he was on TV promoting his book. By the end of the 13-minute interview segment, I was glued to the screen, thinking what a fascinating world in which to set a screenplay because weve seen both on the small screen and the big screen, dramatizations of the president and the politicians who are front and center. Weve never seen or, perhaps in a movie called Thank You For Smoking youve seen lobbyists - but [theyre] the people behind politicians trading their influence, pulling the strings. And that world felt inherently interesting to me and one that I didnt fully understand at the time. It was my excuse to go off and do research and learn more about it.

Pete Hammond, John Madden and Jonathan Perera talk Miss Sloane at the KCET Cinema Series. | Photo: Liz Ohanesian

On women in Miss Sloane.

JM: Its not an accident that the three crucial characters, in terms of moving a narrative forward, are all women in this. Youre absolutely correct in saying that if you flipped the gender, this would be a hero or an anti-hero that we would be much more familiar with because the outsider, the maverick, the rule-breaker, the obsessive, the person whose got no inner life, all those things are quite familiar. Well, not that familiar, but more familiar, lets say, in cinematic literature, but a woman is not.

To be honest with you, thats what set the movie apart for me. Im completely fascinated by this world. I love the idea that you could make a thriller around intelligent conversation rather than the more familiar tropes that are involved in a thriller. But, the thing that raised it above of the material, to me, aside from being extremely well-written, was that factor. When Jonny and I met and started working on this in March of last year, [that] was really all the work that we did on it, because the structure was pretty much already in place. [The work] was evolving what is happening to that character. Theres one surface narrative. Theres one hidden narrative, which you witness, and theres also a buried narrative that has to do with what is happening to her and the emotional evolution of that character from someone who does not realize, or, does not choose to have an emotional life of any sort whatsoever. And she buys this relationship, whereby we understand a little bit about what might be going on under the surface. But, actually, that evolves over the course of the story, in particular, in terms of the human price that she starts to see is being paid in order for her to achieve this goal.

That was just a very interesting story to tell in terms of the woman at the center of it. To me, thats what makes it a really strong movie. I know that sounds odd because the narrative is so good, but, actually, its the underneath of it, the way she becomes a human being by the end and finally connects with the cause that shes fighting for, which, at the beginning she doesnt. She just wants to win it.

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On Miss Sloane in comparison to lead female characters of golden age films.

JM: They tended to be defined by elements that have nothing to do with this story, which is really interesting. Shes not a mother. Shes not a lover. Shes not a sex obje

LINK:	https://www.kcet.org/kcet-cinema-series/director-john-madden-and-scree...
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