And, yes, this movie, The Trial of the Chicago 7, was never meant to be about 1968. It was always meant to be about today. And so the conflict between Tom Hayden (Redmayne) and Abbie Hoffman in this film is reflective of the intramural tension on the left between the left and the further left. The people who are saying, we need incremental change, we have to do this practically, we have to compromise, please, will you quiet down about defunding the police and the Green New Deal until after November 3rd? I get that. I’m with that.
You know, there are two generations at work on a film set now. I used to be part of the younger generation, and now I’ve graduated to the Senior class. So when I am talking to the group that is just a few years out of UCLA Film School—and I would have this conversation every day at lunch—I’d say, you have to win an election before you can do any of these things, and with this election, it’s chicken or fish—or really it’s chicken or rotting fish that has been sitting out in the sun for a week. There’s nothing else on the menu. It’s gotta be one of those, and don’t let someone else choose for you.
In the film, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman are performers. They’re performing their activism. Is that what we see on Instagram?
As far as the idea of performative protest, I want to know how many people that inspires, how many people that persuades—versus how powerful a weapon it can be to the opposition. Trump tried to convince people that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the leader of the Democratic party when she hadn’t been in Congress for a full term yet—that kind of thing. And my opinions on this stuff will change after the election, but right now I am just about one thing. You have to do one thing, or as Tom Hayden says in the film, it doesn’t matter what’s second on the list.
There are so many actors in this film. Was wrangling such a large group hard, or did the ensemble make it easier?