Adapted from the book “All The Truth Is Out” by political journalist Matt Bai, the true story film “The Front Runner” is in theaters today.
The true story follows Hart, played by award-winning actor Hugh Jackman, from his start as the overwhelming presidential “front runner” in the 1988 election, to his exit from the race due to rumors of an extramarital affair. The Knockturnal had the opportunity to sit down with Jackman to discuss his relationship to the story of Gary Hart, how how he prepared for the role of the senator, and the film’s influence on politics and media today.
“I was on a gap year in 1987,” recalled Jackman. “I pretty much don’t remember the entire year, any part of it, let alone what was going on in politics in America. Even people I know who studied political science at college back then will say things like, ‘Didn’t he ask them to follow him around? ‘Was it Monkey Business?’ ‘Was it Donna Rice?’ That’s usually the thing they would really know or really understand. And Matt Bai’s book, actually, in 2003, really changed everyone’s perspective of the whole story.”
“When you see the movie you will go, ‘This was the moment when the press and politicians stop having a whiskey at 10:00 pm at night after the end of the day’s campaign. This was the separation.’ There’s a scene in this movie where the next president of the United States is in an alleyway at two in the morning with three journalists from the Miami Herald; no one knew what the hell to do. This was the beginning of satellite TV. This was the beginning of the 24-hour news cycle. This is where it all changed.”
“I do believe, I’ve always felt this, that our stories, how we present ourselves to the world, that includes our family, that includes our friends, no matter how wide our circle is, I would say is the most valuable thing to us,” said Jackman on how he saw his role as affecting public memory of Gary Hart and speaking to that legacy. “For most people, how people think of them and the legacy they have is important. So we are depicting the worst three weeks of someone’s life and somehow putting it up on the screen for people to judge. I certainly took that responsibility seriously. I like to find out what people are about and Gary is the number one everybody told me was elusive. If on the words people described, elusive would be up here. Enigmatic, charismatic, all of that stuff.”
With director Jason Reitman, Jackman worked to bring viewers closer to the true heart of who Gary Hart was. “We wanted to allow the audience to feel they were coming closer and closer, edging, edging closer and closer to understanding the character but never fully letting them in. That was difficult to me. It took restraint and thank God I had Jason because I really had to trust him that I was in the right ballpark there. I did an immense amount of research. I was very nervous about playing someone who is alive, someone I now call a friend. I didn’t know that was going to happen when I started but it’s his life, it’s his legacy and I presumed he was going to see the film, which he ended up seeing with his family. It raises the stakes immensely.”
Jackman spoke to Gary Hart extensively in preparation for taking on the role and learned Hart’s greatest concerns following the release of the film. “His main concern at the time was his family. He just celebrated his 60th wedding anniversary. He kept saying to me, he goes, ‘I don’t know why an actor like you would want to play me.’ He was very humble. It’s the worst three weeks of his life and his family’s life probably. And it’s bringing it all back up again.”
The concern that Jackman expressed was also shared by Hart in the 1980s, and even now to some respect. “Hart said, ‘This is why people don’t want to be in public life, because someone will dredge up something you said in a moment 15 years ago and act like it encapsulates your life.’ I think it’s really interesting how we can easily write people off for a mistake, even knowing we are all human. So he made a comment, one of 6 million comments. Even in that press conference, I always liked the line they said, ‘How do you think people can trust you after this? What will they think of your character?’”
Jackman recalled Hart’s words in the heat of the scandal, “‘Well, I think, yeah, I made some mistakes but I think character should be judged over the course of a career,’ which had been 25 years. So I think we judge politicians very harsh and I understand why. It’s a very important job that they’ve got and they’re in charge of all of our futures, our children’s futures, education, health, foreign policy. There are so many things they’re in charge of. We really want to make sure that we feel they can do the job. But as Gary says, some things in public life are interesting but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re important. What is important is what the movie is ultimately asking but not answering, and it’s different for everybody.”
The Gary Hart scandal was viewed as a pivotal moment in political journalism, Jackman agreed “When I see the movie, and I’m someone who majored in journalism so I have a natural empathy there, but you feel the pressure on everybody, on Gary, on the family, on the campaign staff, on the press and the chaos and the pressure of the campaign is very evident I think. One of the things I love about this movie, there are no good guys and bad guys. They’re human beings. We’re human and we all make mistakes and I think actually I’ve heard Jason say this and I like it, he said, ‘What flaws will we accept in our leaders?’ Not do they have flaws, of course, they have flaws, but what will we accept and what won’t we accept?”
