And in a huge ensemble mostly in amazing late-seventies wigs and mustaches , his is the one role showy enough to be meriting Oscar talk — while Ben Affleck is rightly getting major attention for his directing. Picture him saying everything with long, gravely pauses, bemusement, and a Brooklyn accent. Is your character based on a real person? Well, when I was making the movie I thought it was, and I did some research on him and found that what was written in the script had very little to do with what I was reading about the character, who was real.
And then I found out after the film that he was actually based on a composite of two or three different people, which would have been hard to play. So, there is no Lester Siegel? Well, there was a Lester Siegel. Yeah, I was basing him on [Warner Bros. What was it about Jack that fit? His extraordinary confidence and brashness. What was it like meeting him at the party?
Well, it was a party, I think, for Wait Until Dark. He just went on for about five minutes exalting in his ownership of his studio, very affable and aggressive and comfortable with himself.
All while being three-feet-one. Well, no, he was bigger than that. And then I thought, if they were going to invent, why not make the fugitives more interesting or Affleck's Mendez less of a lump? But my guess is the movie will be nominated for all kinds of awards and make Affleck an A-list director. Studios can do business with a filmmaker who comes on so serious but has a core of Hollywood shamelessness. Copyright NPR Skip to main content. Close close Donate. Close Close. Lester Siegel : Nina, you look fabulous.
You're doing the reading? Nina : I'm playing Circe, the Galactic Witch. Lester Siegel : Great. I'll call you. Lester Siegel : Keep that fucking space witch away from me. John Chambers : You know her? Lester Siegel : I was married to her. Tony Mendez : We got an office, we got business cards If I'm the Revolutionary Guard that's nothing we couldn't have made at home. Six people's lives depend on this It's not enough. If we're gonna fool these people, it has to be big.
And it has to have something that says it's authentic. John Chambers : I did a movie with Rock Hudson one time. If you wanna sell a lie Lester Siegel : You get the press to sell it for you.
Lester Siegel : We made history today. John Chambers : Or it's the other way around. Lester Siegel : Yeah? Who said it? John Chambers : Marx. Lester Siegel : Groucho said that? Tony Mendez : [reading a script] Fade in on a starship landing. An exotic, Middle Eastern vibe. Women gather, offering ecstatic libations to the sky gods.
A science-fantasy adventure. Lester Siegel : [reluctantly] It's in turnaround. It's dog shit. Argo , like Beautiful Mind , plays out as a clever mix of genre formulas. The opening minutes feel lifted from a documentary about the s Iranian Revolution; grainy photography from Rodrigo Prieto allows stock footage to blend seamlessly with the actual film.
Affleck's direction and Chris Terrio's script allows the film to smoothly shift from white-knuckle thriller to CIA socio-political drama, Hollywood satire, and back to high-tension yarn during the third act.
In order to reach the sweaty-palm climax, though, a fair amount of exaggeration takes place. In David Haglund's article for Slate , it's pointed out that virtually all the obstacles Argo throws at Affleck's CIA agent Tony Mendez and the six endangered American embassy escapees during the third act were, in fact, made up.
The reason things went so much smoother in real-life? It turns out Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor played by Victor Garber and a fellow embassy employee John Sheardown - who does not appear in the film - were more involved with the rescue effort than the movie suggests. The two not only helped scout out the Iran airport in advance, but also purchased the Americans' tickets, coached them in having a Canadian accent, and were even responsible for setting the rescue plan in motion to begin with.
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