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| Hayden Information; Projects; Shattered Glass |
| Production |
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Billy Ray directs "Shattered Glass" from his own screenplay, which is based on an article by
H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger of the same title that appeared in the September 1998 issue of Vanity
Fair. "This is a cautionary tale - a story about the difference between being a good reporter
and being a hot one," says Ray, who makes his directorial debut with the film. "That's what Buzz Bissinger's article was about, and that's what we've tried to capture with the film."
"My hope is that people who see 'Shattered Glass' will look at the craft of journalism from a
different perspective," Ray continues. "The New Republic, like The New York Times, is not
an institution, it is a staff of people who are in charge of an institution, and those people can
have good judgment or bad judgment. Stephen Glass took advantage of their bad judgment
as well as their good nature."
In turning a non-fiction article into a dramatic feature, Ray and his producers understood from
the outset that their project would certainly come under scrutiny by those who lived the events they were to depict. For this reason, as Ray adapted Buzz Bissinger's Vanity Fair article for the screen, he conducted interviews with many of the key players from the time, and referred constantly to the transcripts of those interviews. Before he included an event in the screenplay, he checked with two separate sources to make sure that it really occurred. Glass' former editor, Charles Lane, who is now a reporter for the Washington Post, vetted the script before it went into production.
"We felt an obligation to get the facts of this story straight," explains Ray as he discusses his approach to adapting Bissinger's article for the big screen. "It would be supremely ironic to make stuff up just to suit the movie-making process. In order to keep the story accurate, I needed sources inside and outside The New Republic who knew Glass and what went on."
But because Ray was dealing with real events lived by real people, he also had an obligation to make sure that his work would not hurt them in any way.
During his research, Ray talked to "certain sources who, for one reason or another, required anonymity, which is why some characters in the film had to be turned into composites or masked."
For example, the film includes an intern at The New Republic who did not exist in real life.
"He's there to protect people who do exist," says Ray.
"I did things like that to protect people who had helped me.
Some of them still work at The New Republic and, understandably,
we never felt we could count on enthusiasm for our story from the powers that be there."
Since the story is set in the world of journalism, which is ruled by tenets of accuracy and
fairness, the filmmakers also expected that "Shattered Glass" would draw extra attention from the press.
They just didn't think it would happen so soon.Stories about the film ran over the AP wire
and in the Washington Post just as production began. But shortly thereafter, a film critic for the New York Daily News wrote that Ray "undoubtedly sees some harmless romanticism in a guy who could so easily fool seasoned magazine pros." He also wrote that we "have something to fear" from people like Stephen Glass, "whose willingness to manufacture fraud can only be encouraged by movies that put their bylines in lights." The story ran in the critic's Sunday column over Labor Day weekend, about half way through production on "Shattered Glass."
Working twelve-hour days six days a week to complete a six week-shoot, Ray and his
producers could not immediately respond to the critic's essay, but they thought about it a lot
and talked about it a lot. How, they wondered, could a movie critic pass judgment on a film
before it was finished? Two days after the film wrapped principal photography in Montreal, producers Craig Baumgarten, Adam Merims and Tove Christensen sent a letter to the editor of the Daily News explaining that "nothing could be further from our intention" than glamorizing Glass. "Shattered Glass," they wrote, "is to be an unflinchingly honest and, most importantly, accurate film that will in no way defend, excuse or trivialize the impact of Glass' actions. In fact, the real heroes of 'Shattered Glass' are the editors who, once they uncovered evidence of Glass' transgressions, acted immediately and decisively, defending their honorable profession." The letter was never published, but it helped the filmmakers galvanize what they had observed about their project as it played out before them on a Montreal soundstage. "You think you're seeing a movie about Stephen Glass, and you realize about halfway through you're also seeing a movie about Chuck Lane," Ray told Washington Post "Media Notes" columnist Howard Kurtz in the first week of October. This was around the time the production visited Washington to pick up a few exterior shots. Producer Craig Baumgarten told Kurtz, "We're putting ourselves up to a very difficult standard for a movie. We can't falsify or invent or homogenize the story in any way." Baumgarten, whose credits as a studio production executive and independent producer include dozens of features and a few TV projects, first thought of Bissinger's Vanity Fair article as a great project for HBO, where he began developing it with HBO executive Gaye Hirsch. Baumgarten and Hirsch turned the material over to screenwriter Billy Ray, whose credits at that time included the screenplay for the acclaimed TNT original film "Legalese," starring James Garner and Mary-Louise Parker, and the 20th Century Fox feature "Volcano," starring Tommy Lee Jones. Ray began work on the script in 1999. "Shattered Glass" went into limbo some time later, as the regime at HBO changed. In the meantime, Hirsch went to Cruise / Wagner productions, where she hired Ray as a screenwriter on two other projects. But Stephen Glass' story had stuck with Ray, who asked if they could get the option back from HBO. "Paula Wagner looked at the material. I was thrilled that she wanted to come aboard," Ray recalls. "And between Cruise / Wagner and Baumgarten / Merims, we were able to make it ours again." Ray once again began work on the screenplay, which was informed by many contributions from people who worked with Glass and knew the inner-workings of life at The New Republic. As for his approach to the script, Ray says "Anytime you do a 'docu-drama,' you're creating an eye to what really happened, not a window. You make choices. There are certain events that we focus on and others that we don't. But there's nothing in the script or the film that I wouldn't stand behind 100%." Among the people from whom Ray culled insight was the late, former New Republic editor Michael Kelly. "The most powerful guidance we got from Kelly was the way Glass behaved when he was confronted with a problem in one of his stories," Ray offers. "Kelly generously showed us how Glass would blame himself so extravagantly one could not help but sympathize with him and take it easier on him. Kelly never had the heart to really unload on him for screwing up, and I think that because of Kelly's candor we were able to capture that dynamic with great authenticity." Indeed, audiences that see "Shattered Glass" who have followed the more recent Jayson Blair saga at The New York Times will notice certain similarities between Glass' behavior and that of Blair. As informed by Kelly and Bissinger, written by Ray and portrayed by Hayden Christensen, Glass was popular among and friendly with his co-workers. He was the kind of guy who remembered birthdays and personal likes and dislikes, flirted with the receptionist, was on a first-name basis with the janitor and took a supportive interest in the work of others. In the Times' own exhaustive account of the Blair episode, which ran on page one of the paper's May 11th edition, its writers point out that "many at the Times grew fond of the affable Mr. Blair, who seemed especially gifted at office politics. He made a point of getting to know many of the newsroom support figures, for example. His distinctive laugh became a familiar sound." The report continues, "'He had charisma, enormous charisma,' David Carr, a Times media reporter, said. Mr. Blair, he added, often praised articles written by colleagues, and, frequently, 'it was something far down in the story, so you'd know he read it.'" From the real-life Charles Lane, Ray was able to ascertain a vivid sense of the intricate interpersonal dynamics at the magazine, specifically how well his co-workers and supervisors liked Glass, and how well that high regard ultimately insulated Glass from suspicion or criticism. Charles Lane was also hugely helpful to the production when he visited the set. Ray recalls that Lane's input helped in two ways: "First," explains Ray, "he was able to help us direct the 'day-to-day-ness' of what was going on at the magazine, literally telling us what the extras should be doing in the background action that some of our scenes were set against. Second, Lane gave us all a big thrill when he pointed out how Hayden bore an uncanny resemblance to Stephen Glass." Hayden Christensen remembers Lane's comments as well. "Frankly," says Christensen, "just taking on Glass' sensibilities was the big worry for me, so I wasn't really as focused on getting the appearance dead on. For me, that part of it was all about the glasses I wore. But it was very reassuring for me to hear [Lane] say that it was 'kind of eerie' how much physically I reminded him of Stephen. It was definitely helpful." Lane's visit did give Ray one sleepless night, however "Somehow we'd scheduled Lane's visit to coincide with the day we shot a scene in which all the New Republic reporters sat around talking about what a jerk Lane was, how he was an arrogant, humorless, bad writer. And I didn't realize this until the night before, as Lane was on a plane headed our way." Ray recalls that Lane "showed up the next day, put on the headphones and watched the scene. After the first rehearsal I apologized and said I'd understand if he maybe wanted to go get a cup of coffee or something. To his credit, Lane took it well, and said 'It's probably a pretty accurate description of what they were saying about me.'" A number of pathways also lead back in time to the University of Pennsylvania and its campus newspaper, the Daily Pennsylvanian. Buzz Bissinger graduated from Penn in 1976, but was asked back to the campus to speak at the annual Daily Pennsylvanian banquet 18 years later. A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and author of Friday Night Lights, the famous book about the impact of high school football on Odessa, Texas, Bissinger brought real world knowledge to the aspiring journalists at Penn. Though he was never able to interview Glass for his Vanity Fair story, Bissinger did in fact meet Glass and his parents at that banquet years earlier, during which time Glass was editor-in-chief of the Daily Pennsylvanian. According to a recent account in 34th St. Magazine, the weekly arts supplement to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Glass' parents buttonholed Bissinger at the banquet to help their son secure an internship. The article, written by Jake Brooks, quotes Bissinger: "I had never met his parents before in my life. It was just this relentless ambition." Another Penn alumnus connected to "Shattered Glass" is producer Tove Christensen, who graduated in 1996. As president of Forest Park Pictures, Christensen is constantly on the lookout for high-quality projects to produce in which his brother Hayden could star. "We were looking to do something that was more ... character-driven, a psychological journey" Christensen told 34th St. Magazine. But it wasn't until much later that Tove realized that his time at Penn overlapped that of Glass, and that he had probably read Glass' work in the campus paper. In the course of their quest for good material, Hayden and Tove Christensen met with the agent at Endeavor who by coincidence had represented Bissinger's article on Glass and presented it among other potential projects. Glass' story stood out. Later, the Glass story once again came up in a meeting between Hayden, Tove and the producer Mark Gordon, who knew of the project and of Billy Ray's screenplay. Gordon called Ray and urged him to get in touch with Hayden and Tove. Ray recalls that, "At the time, I knew little about Hayden except for his name. 'Attack of the Clones' wasn't out yet, and I hadn't seen [Hayden's breakout role in] 'Life as a House.' At first I thought he might be too young. But then I saw 'Life as a House' and my confidence in Hayden grew exponentially." Hayden became attached to star in "Shattered Glass" and Tove Christensen became a producer very soon after they read the script. As it circulated, Ray's screenplay attracted a number of smart, talented young actors, as well as financing. If "Shattered Glass" has an overriding dramatic question, it is "Why did Glass do what he did?" Which is really a way of asking, "Who exactly is Stephen Glass?" The first thing Hayden Christensen observed about Glass is that "he was very young for the amount of attention he got in his industry, and he kind of fed off of it." Christensen also notes that "it was kind of hard for his family to accept" Glass' chosen profession, "so to really succeed as a journalist he felt like he really needed to go above and beyond what his family would expect him to achieve." In creating the character, Christensen says he "broke it down to the amount of pressure Glass felt from his family and just really kind of loving the taste he got from the first success of his fabricated article. That's kind of what kept him going, I think." Hank Azaria plays Michael Kelly, the editor that mentored Glass for several years and who was perhaps the most hurt - at least emotionally - by Glass' betrayal of journalism and its code of ethics. Not surprisingly Azaria - who spoke at length by phone with the real Michael Kelly in preparation for the role, sees another side of Glass. "To me [Glass' behavior] reminded me of the worst lie you ever told as a child. Usually by the time you're about 10 or 11 you get caught and think to yourself 'Boy, I'll never do that again.' It's like that never happened with Stephen Glass and he did it his way, only as an adult. But he got to carry it out to an intricately clever degree." Azaria reports that the real Michael Kelly's impression of Glass was that "he is literally a pathological liar, a sociopath, that he had no other motivation than being addicted to tricking people and the thrill of doing that. And that combined with a lot of ambition and this kind of pressure that a lot of young bright people feel today to achieve. Kelly thought Glass had a kind of con man mentality. He became addicted to the con." With all the scrutiny the cast and filmmakers have focused on who Glass really was, the finished film will surely also cause audiences to debate Glass's motivations and morals or lack thereof. The fact remains that Stephen Glass is a real person who will be made more famous - or infamous - by the film. However, it now seems clear that he will not be - to borrow the word used by the Daily News critic - glamorized by the film, especially since the real life Glass has appeared on "60 Minutes." But has Ray worried that his work may further unnecessarily vilify Stephen Glass, a figure who is already exiled from the profession he has said that he loved? "I don't celebrate in any way the idea that this movie will cause this guy pain and embarrassment," Ray told the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz last October. "I regret that. But it's a story that we all felt should be told. I don't know how to make this movie without naming Stephen Glass. That would have felt very cheap. It would have been wildly ironic to make this movie with fake names." During production, Ray imagined that his finished film would "stand in judgement" of Glass "a bit - but we also don't go out of our way to slam anyone, not Glass or his family or his editors. What we are doing, I think, is the cinematic equivalent of good reporting." Indeed, even that Daily News critic, so judgmental of the film before it was even finished shooting, seems to have adopted a new attitude in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal. He suggests in a Sunday, June 1, 2003, essay that a movie about Blair should be done "as a comedy," because "Shattered Glass" will make a movie about Blair "déjà vu all over again." Later, the critic concludes that "any filmmaker attempting to dramatize [Blair's] story will have to do what writer-director Billy Ray has done with 'Shattered Glass' - find a hero in the margins and make him the focus." For Hayden Christensen, playing Glass was a challenge not only because the real person was something of an enigma, but also because "I would go to work everyday and have to lie through my teeth. By the end of the film I was really ready to leave Stephen. "With this character, I didn't get to have that sense of connecting with something honest. As a result, on this movie I always felt like the response I was getting from people around me was kind of false, just because that's what my character was feeling as well. It was definitely troubling." Also on the set, on a soundstage that is dressed to create the look of the offices of The New Republic, Ray reveals that the character of Glass "really wrote himself. He was everyone's son, everyone's protégé." The part of the soundstage dressed to reflect what Glass' office looked like supports Ray's idea of a youthful writer who wanted to please. Among stacks of old newspapers and scant personal effects are shelves of books that we'd expect from a recent graduate and young reporter. Some of the titles are ironic: The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law, David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest, and Harold Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. One title illustrates Glass' supreme abilities as an ass-kisser: a copy of Michael Kelly's book Martyr's Day sits at the top of a stack. But there's also a lot of what Glass would himself become known for, American fiction: Penguin Classics editions of Twain, Hawthorne, Melville and Henry James, with a first edition of a minor Faulkner novel thrown in for good measure. As a first-time director, Ray relied heavily on the cast and crew - including the designers who dressed and lit Glass' office - for guidance and support, and he approached production with both humility and confidence. As for humility, Ray told a reporter who visited the set that "There is no one on this set who knows less about making movies than I do." Though faced with a tight production schedule, Ray made it a priority to listen to input from both cast and crew, even when it came to on-the-spot revisions to his script. His closest collaborator during production was cinematographer Mandy Walker, who shot 2001's acclaimed, intimate drama "Lantana" starring Anthony LaPaglia. "Billy can be very humble about his abilities," Walker explains, "but that doesn't mean he wasn't totally prepared every day. He knew exactly how he wanted the story to be told." He knew, for example, that he "wanted the film to look like a kind of mature, character-driven film. He wanted the film to look like a studio film from the 70's, and not like an indie movie or a low-budget feature. He knew that the style of shooting a 70's studio film was best representative of the atmosphere he wanted to create." Walker revealed that, prior to production, she and Ray watched Alan Pakula's "All the Presidents Men" dozens of times, to see how a story about journalism could be told in a visually compelling way. As for confidence, Ray told Jake Brooks of 34th St. Magazine that "There are a lot of writers who are obsessed with becoming directors, and I was never one of those guys. But once this script was written, for the first time in my career, I really felt that it was a story that I wanted to tell myself, and it was a story I thought I could tell." |
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