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Filmmaker: It took seven months to secure interview with Cheney
Although nothing was off the table when the cameras started rolling, filmmaker R.J. Cutler says it took seven months to get the former vice president to sit down with him for “The World According to Dick Cheney.”
The Showtime documentary, which premieres Friday, details Cheney’s Wyoming childhood and his ascent from White House chief of staff to Congress, to becoming secretary of Defense under former President George H.W. Bush and then to residing in the vice president’s residence.
Cutler, the producer behind the “The War Room,” which followed Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, says he was itching to do another political film.
“I was curious not only about [Cheney’s] time in office, not just as vice president, but the earlier parts of his career that we chronicle in the film, particularly as his time as a young man in the Nixon/Ford administration.”
When asked by ITK his impression of the 72-year-old former House minority whip before making the film, Cutler replies, “Our politics are very different. So I think that kind of characterizes where I was when I went in. But I was greatly curious about him and that’s mostly what drove me.”
Cutler, who also created the 1996 documentary “A Perfect Candidate” about the Senate race in Virginia between candidates Chuck Robb (D) and Oliver North (R), says despite following politicians, the focus isn’t so much on politics in his flicks.
The movie guru says he was most surprised to learn about the relationship between Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
“It makes it very clear that their approach within the [President George W. Bush] administration was in a way historically based. That’s one of those amazing moments where truth is greater than fiction ever could be,” says Cutler.
“I’m looking to make films ... that have as much to say about their subjects in the moment as they will 20 years down the road.”
