INTERVIEW: HBO’s ‘The Newspaperman’ offers topical profile of Ben Bradlee

Among a list of legendary American journalists, Ben Bradlee is right near the top. The former Washington Post executive editor was at the center of many of the 20th century’s highlights and lowlights.

The Pentagon Papers? Check.

Watergate and President Richard Nixon? Check.

President John F. Kennedy? Check.

Bradlee, who died in 2014, was survived by his wife, Sally Quinn, an accomplished journalist as well, and his children. Bradlee and Quinn’s story is seeing a lot of news coverage this month. Besides Steven Spielberg’s high-profile movie on the Pentagon Papers, a report that detailed the American involvement in Vietnam, HBO is set to release The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Brad Bradlee. The documentary, directed by John Maggio (Looking for Lincoln), will premiere Monday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m.

In the film, which details the many chapters of Bradlee’s professional life, there are several journalists who heap praise on the newspaperman. Among the assembled voices are Tom Brokaw, Carl Bernstein, Bob Woodward and David Remnick.

Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Maggio about the project. Here’s what he had to say:

On the initial inspiration to document Bradlee’s life …

“I wish I could say it was my idea solely, but it all started with Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee’s son, Quinn Bradlee, who just got the idea and called. He had a previous relationship with Richard Plepler, head of HBO, and called him and said, ‘Would you be interested in doing a film of my father?’ And Plepler instantly bit and then eventually reached out to me to direct it, and when they asked me to direct it, I asked about what was available, whether the family was going to participate. And they said they would, so then I knew that it would be another level, of maybe getting a little more intimate portrait of the man.”

On his quest to find Bradlee’s voice on tape …

“I was able to unearth all sorts of tapes that he made when he was writing his memoir, personal aspects, photos and, most importantly, access and permission to use voice from the audiobook, which I don’t think anybody had known he had done except the publisher of the book. And that was a major boon for me because I started to see how I could create a really interesting portrait using Ben’s voice to tell the story, which I think takes the film to another level. It was a combination of all those things.”

On finding archival footage of the stories Bradlee covered …

“That’s part of the filmmaking process. I wanted it to feel cinematic in a way. For instance, I think some of the best stuff we found was hiding in plain sight: the Kennedy footage, which I think a lot of people had seen before. I know I had seen some of it, but I always focused on JFK and not who was around him. And then when I turned my lens to view people around him, I discovered Ben and his wife. That’s my character.

“It was kind of unbelievable to really fully understand and bring to life the intimacy of that relationship, how close Ben truly was to JFK and the problems that that caused for a journalist. I mean, he was the head of the Newsweek bureau in Washington, and here he is having dinner and cruising and playing golf and going to the country home with the president. That was just kind of a startling find. This country has come to understand who JFK was and his personal life and all his trials and tribulations and faults. I think we add another layer to it through Ben’s eyes and Ben’s perspective and his experience, so that is part and parcel of the filmmaking experience and just also being lucky.

“We had such an enormous amount of footage. His life spanned some of the most important moments of the second half of the 20th century, so we had so much incredible footage to work with, from World War II all the way up to the present day. Ben was a vital part of the national discussion.”

On whether Bradlee’s family was open to all of the information — good, bad or indifferent — being broadcast …

“It’s always conundrum when I do these kinds of films, when you have to approach the family, especially when his widow is a legend in her own right, Sally Quinn. I was certainly intimidated, but at her core, Sally is a journalist and also a very honest journalist in regards to her storytelling. And she had nothing to hide, and she said as much. She’s got nothing to hide.

“Ben was not the kind of person that would have tried to hide his foibles, and I think I had some cover in that once they allowed me to use the audiobook as a memoir, these were stories that Ben told very frankly and honestly about his marriages, his relationships with the Kennedys, all sorts of things. So they signed on and didn’t see the film until the final [version] and had come to really love the frankness and the honesty. It’s also a very loving portrait of the man, but we don’t shy away from a lot of his personal stories. And Sally has come to embrace it.”

On the parallels between Bradlee’s journalism and today’s headlines …

“As I’m talking to you, I’m watching CNN, and [Michael] Flynn is now just pleading guilty, or is going to plead guilty. And when I started making it, it was during the campaign, the summer of 2016. I, like everybody, assumed that Hillary Clinton would win, and then after the election, the importance of Ben’s legacy with the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, his challenging of Nixon just took on a whole new meaning. …

“Sean Spicer in his ill-fitting suit spewing these lies about the inauguration, and I’m looking at footage at Nixon’s spokesperson, Ron Ziegler, forcing him to go out and deny the Washington Post access to the White House and trying to turn the story onto the press and making the press the enemy. He stops just barely short of referring to it as fake news, and then, of course, we have the beauty of the Nixon tapes. We now know. We can listen to what was going on behind the scenes, how they wanted to just take down the Post. …

“It’s important to remember, too, as we see all the great reporting that’s going on today at the Washington Post, The New York Times, everybody, CNN, that these kinds of investigations take time. Woodward and Bernstein published hundreds of articles trying to figure out what the story was, how it all added up, and we’re seeing that today. I think it would be really hard not to see these really uncanny parallels from the Nixon era and today.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee will premiere Monday, Dec. at 8 p.m. on HBO. Click here for more information.