ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You seem insanely prolific.
Seen that way, its considerably less remarkable.
I may end up with a mother that still talks to me, and thats about it.
Credit: Peter Morgan (inset): Rick Mackler/Globe Photos
And I would imagine my Christmas-card list could go down to about two.
But youve had consolations.
[The royal family] did go shooting the day after Dianas death.
But actually I think it was grouse they hunted.
People [like Princess Diana and the queen herself] being pursued, hunted, stalked.
Cameras with telephoto lenses and guns with telescopic sights feel very similar.
In the film, the queen gets upset over the stag being hunted.
To be honest with you, it was intentionally metaphoric, the stag.
Thats sort of how I feel about our monarchy.
Im not quite sure how theyre still there.
For me, the stag was the queen.
She gets it entirely wrong.
She patronizes [Prime Minister] Tony Blair, shes cold, shes withdrawn, shes aloof.
Shes riddled with flaws.
And yet people come out [of the film] saying, I just love that woman.
It shows we dont need filmmakers to hide flaws so that see the interesting sides of people.
And speaking of flawed people, theres General Idi Amin inThe Last King of Scotland.
I think hes a socio-economic creation that can be directly linked to British foreign policy abroad.
Youre not born a psychopathic dictator.
Stephen took that as an indication I probably wasnt going to be able to deliver.
So he jumped ontoMrs.
I dont mean this disingenously, or with false modesty.
But I wroteFrost/Nixonfully expecting it to be horrible.
I mean, just a disaster.
I didnt want it to be too earnest.
I wanted to do a human story, almost like a love story.
Its that wonderful gladiatorial thing where only one man can be left standing at the end.
But on the way, two men kind of become obsessed by one another.
So these two characters would each have things of which the other could be profoundly envious.
And yet your Nixon is very funny.I hadnt written him to be funny until we did a reading.
I suddenly realized, weve got something wittier than I thought we had.
I went away and worked more on that tone.
I had meetings with a number of directors, and phone conversations with a number of directors.
But it was Howard who closed the deal.I picked possibly not the first choice other people would have made.
All I can tell you is, Ive slept really well since.
I certainly think Ive picked the most collaborative [candidate].
Im not going to have a traumatic experience with him.
I think hes a big enough man, and a confident enough man, to let me in.
Ill bring plenty of teeth and darkness to it.
The other directors who were interested basically have more art-house, highbrow pedigrees.
Its intelligent, adult mainstream cinema.
Thats why I was excited about Ron doing it.
Hes got very mainstream taste, and thats music to my ears.
To me, thats more exciting than playing to the ballet and goatee-beard crowd.
But Howard hasnt tackled overtly political material before.
I liked that Im English, Rons American.
One producer, Eric Fellner, is English, and the others American, Brian Grazer.
For me that [mix] was important.
That was one thing that counted ahead of Sam Mendes, for example.
The second thing is, Ron Howard committed to makingFrost/Nixonhis next movie contractually.
In my view, Ron Howard has nothing to prove.
But I was incredibly charmed and persuaded by a man clearly feeling he did have something to prove.
But I loved the intensity of his passion and commitment.
I was very, very persuaded by that.
And I really like him.
Hes a really great guy.
Hes very tall, which makes him an unusual choice.My first thought for Nixon was Dan Aykroyd.
Would Ron Howard hire Langella for the movie version ofFrost/Nixon?I dont know.
Those conversations are just starting, really.
What will the film look like?
I dont feel that.
I think opening it up is going to offer all sorts of challenges.
