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Washington turns out to be an employee

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of President Richard Nixon's re-election

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campaign committee. He is one of five

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persons surprised and arrested yesterday

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inside the headquarters of the

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Democratic National Committee in

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Washington. And guess who else he is? A

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consultant to President Richard Nixon's

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re-election campaign committee. The

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trial started today at the federal. One

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of the inherent dilemmas of this movie

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was it came from a very successful play

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that both Ron and I had independently

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seen in London and both sort of loved

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and we loved the performances and we

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sort of went

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this is a great play. So, so what how

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can we not ruin the play but make it

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cinematic? You know, we know the story.

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We all knew the story. So, what new what

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new new things could happen? What could

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happen in this? And then lots of new

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things happened and I thought it was

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really interesting and I thought it said

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a lot about it never talked down to us.

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It was it always stayed at a at a level

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that you want movie making to stay at or

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a a play to stay at, you know. It was it

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was thrilling. It was a boxing match

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without anybody ever putting on the

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gloves. It was,

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you know, and it it consistently stayed

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tough. I thought what was really

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interesting just from a musical point of

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view is that neither of the characters

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are particularly likable. In fact,

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they're not likable at all. And if I

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ever make them likable, which is such a

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tendency, you know, we we all have we

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all have that tendency. We're trying to

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we're trying to make things, you know, a

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little bit more likable or a little bit

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more humane or a little bit more

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empathetic.

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then sometimes they deserve and Peter

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just you know in his writing just went

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for it. He didn't do that. He just

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maintained this sort of cold, detached.

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Here it is.

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John Dean, the ex-wife House Council,

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testified today that President Nixon

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knew about the Watergate couple.

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And actually, it's interesting for me to

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watch the opening of this movie again

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because, you know, we yesterday we were

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talking about these sweets that I write.

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That's of my diary of, you know,

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everyday writing a little bit further.

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145page statement characterizing a

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president who was easily outraged over

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more protesters

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up until you actually get to the actor

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playing Richard Nixon. It's all just the

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original suite. It just laid up against

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it. And it wasn't Dan the editor cut to

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it. But it gives you the right mode. It

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gives you the right propulsion. And

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certainly for Ron, it gave gave him the

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right feeling for for the way he wanted

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to tell the story.

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president today accept the resation of

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freedom.

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All it is is me, bunch of synthesizers

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and one chist. So the whole score that

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that was the lineup for the score.

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So it starts a bit crooked. It starts

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with a good riff and it's just the

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variations on that riff all the way

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through that that became, you know, sort

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of gold as far as material was

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concerned. And I and I I never knew I

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was writing the opening to the film.

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White House aid told NBC News today that

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impeachment of the president by the full

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House of Representatives.

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I thought we should we we we should have

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a breathless quality about the whole

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thing.

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Serious the last hours of the 37th

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presidency of the United States.

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This is indeed a historic day. The only

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time a president has ever resigned from

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office in our nearly 200 years of

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history. I think that should be a sense

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of panic for all the characters.

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Everything is at stake for them, you

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know. Um, for Richard Nixon, he's going

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to lose the country. He's going to lose

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the presidency. He's going to be found

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out.

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15 seconds, Mr. President.

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And for David Frost, things weren't

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going so well. This this was a this was

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a huge gamble. life wasn't, you know, he

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he he was I think he was pretending that

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life was a lot better than it was and

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that his jobs were a lot better than

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they were. I mean, I think at that

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moment in time, he was doing a game show

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in Australia.

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Um, so plus you wanted to have the sense

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of these two

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rather odd adversaries meeting and you

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wanted to have a sense that you wanted

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to have a sense it was real as well that

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we were talking about things which had

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the events had taken place. Not all the

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events in as depicted in the movie have

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taken place but the you know the the the

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big historical shift that you know that

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really had taken place and the one thing

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I didn't want to do is I didn't want it

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to be sort of history big history notes

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you know big strings big brass big you

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know that there's a way of scoring

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movies so there's like two ways of

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scoring movies either one is very

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objective you know for instance Star

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Wars is very objective you It starts off

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with the bum, you know, the big fanf

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fair. I'm not going to sing it and get

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John Williams to burn my house down. Um,

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I'm not going to sing it. We all know

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how Star Wars goes, but it's it's a big

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orchestra and it's a big sound and it's

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sort of it nearly looks down on the

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action, you know, while this is sort of

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like inside and it's a bit crooked and

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it's a bit broken and it's a bit like

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it's it's very low tech and it's, you

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know, typewriters and bad pianos and

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things which are just so so so it's it

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it's more the mystery of the characters

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are feeling and more the the slight

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Everything is too fast.

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One of the things you can do of course

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in cinema which you can't do in a play

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is you can do the close-up. So all these

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sort of things which which we're talking

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about is that for instance in a closeup

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I can go and musically

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sort of hint at what the character is

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thinking or the subtext of this and we

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started to get really excited and then

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some of these close-ups became sort of

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if you just did this one closeup in slow

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motion just just cranked it a bit you

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know all sorts of interesting rhythms

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would start happening.

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stand.

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We're coming back on camera. Three in

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four, three, two, and

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I love doing this in movies that I make

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the audience lean forward a little bit,

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you know, just just lead you closer to

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the characters. So So, you know, those

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those were some of the things that, you

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know, um Ron and I were talking about.

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And then you know those thoughts would

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come back and I would go, "Ah, okay. Now

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I got to figure out a quick clever way

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of making you lean in.

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I let the American people

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always knew that this was going to be uh

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you know the the loudest silence you

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ever heard. We saw how people would

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watch the scene and we wanted them to

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hold their breath. And if you heard

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people breathing in the cinema, you

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know, we knew we had failed.

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My political life is over

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because part of it is part of first of

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all the writing is really good. Peter's

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writing is really good. The performances

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are really good. And sometimes just

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letting the au uh actors hang in silence

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was uh uh you know was

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very powerful you know to to keep the

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edge going

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to not soften anything. It was great to

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take the music out or just not to do

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music in certain bits.

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You know the the first and greatest sin

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or deception of television is that it

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simplifies it diminishes great complex

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ideas. This is actually the piece that

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you know when I wrote it and I played

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it, it was I I could not make it not

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sound romantic and sympathetic and

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empathetic towards the character. Um

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it's just not in my fingers to play

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cold. And so a friend of mine had to go

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and replay it who can play very

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precisely and very cold.

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All the piano is doing all the time is

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just throwing one question at you. Every

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note is a question, right? If you just

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took that out, that would be, you know,

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an energy, a beautiful energy left.

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Is this what you call a dark song?

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If I took the piano down and you'd hear

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him off the strings, you know, you'd

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automatically tie it to him. Especially,

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you know, he's he's got the sad eyes.

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You know, you you know that thing with

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the dog um getting into the car slowly.

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all everything everything everything in

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the way it's shot you know lets you

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basically set up a perfect trap for the

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composer to go and pour trickly sugary

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empathy over the whole thing and when

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that happens the game is lost

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a Mexican director once said to me

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actually was it was a really good

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description she said she wanted a piece

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of music like a beautiful cake with a

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knife in it, you know, and this is a

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beautiful cake with a knife in it. The

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notes themselves are

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awkward and a little clashy and a little

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at the same time you got a sort of a

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bachelike

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quality to it. Um,

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and it's it's just it's it's really more

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that the notes are fighting each other

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than that they are supporting each

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other. And at the same time I I very

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gently try to put in the idea

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of tragedy but not tragedy for Richard

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Nixon but the tragedy of you know our

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the people's betrayal by you know by by

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a system we believed in by politics by

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whatever that is you know the the you

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know the the American dream sort of gone

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wrong. We had a modest budget

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um which when those conversations first

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started out were going to be all eaten

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up by um song licensing.

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And then

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it sort of turned out we didn't need all

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those songs. We we found we found a a

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different way of telling it. Um, but it

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it was just fun,

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you know, working within a, you know,

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very limited means and, you know, you

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never notice it. Yeah. That there's like

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a like a shot in the movie which I I

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sort of adore which is

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it's um David Frost's office building

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and I'm looking at it when when Sean

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comes back and I'm suddenly realized,

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oh, it's the production office. somebody

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just painted a big 75 onto it quickly,

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you know. So, you know, we we weren't

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wasteful. Um, it's really important to

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always be in a position where you have

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to go and make something because you you

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know, you fervently believe and that

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this movie now needs to be made as

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opposed to thinking it's going to be a

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box office success. You know, Peter

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Morgan had given us a script that

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seduced us, enabled us, was a gift to us

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to go and and and do something we hadn't

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done before and and to try to work

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really well and and and and try to be as

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good as his words. So, um

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you know, that's the stuff that makes

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you get up in the morning.