For Bryan [Cranston ] to go back in time and become this larger-than-life and somewhat theatrical guy, who performed his ideas and rhetoric in public in a melodic and flashy way, was a bit of a risk.
JAY ROACHFor Bryan [Cranston ] to go back in time and become this larger-than-life and somewhat theatrical guy, who performed his ideas and rhetoric in public in a melodic and flashy way, was a bit of a risk.
JAY ROACHI wish I was sort of someone like Woody Allen who can stage everything in one long master shot, no coverage; just, you know, that’s it.
JAY ROACHIn his life, [Dalton] Trumbo uses wit and comedy to fight these very high-stakes battles.
JAY ROACHSometimes you fall in love with some things and then you fall out of love with it.
JAY ROACH[Lyndon Baines ] Johnson is a big and larger-than-life guy, we just tried to give him the dynamic range that he actually had.
JAY ROACHThere’s people who actually have a whole science devoted to what makes a sticky meme and that idea of that question of why some ideas about how civilizations work catch on and others don’t.
JAY ROACHThe success of the second ‘Austin Powers’ caught us by surprise a little bit. We had decided not to do even a second one, unless the audience wanted it and we could do something better.
JAY ROACHSometimes perfecting the one thing can be the enemy of getting any traction on anything else.
JAY ROACHTo his credit John Wayne was open about it, he even portrayed a member of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in a film called ‘Big Jim McClain.’
JAY ROACHHedda’s Hopper attitude was ‘once a Commie, always a Commie.’
JAY ROACHI don’t stay in the genre because I just like all stories that have a smart hook in them and I can find a comic way through if it’s a comedy or a suspenseful way through it if it’s a drama.
JAY ROACHOne of the series of decisions that the great screenwriter John McNamara made was about who to depict. [Ronald] Reagan had a role in HUAC, he was a friendly witness, but never went over-the-top about it.
JAY ROACH[ Dalton Trumbo] always said he fought so many fights, all seemingly different, but all about the concepts of fairness and justice.
JAY ROACHPeople have an actual bias against there being some kind of popularity for political films, and when they get acknowledged, it helps keep the conversation going.
JAY ROACHFrom our perspective now, there is a not a huge understanding about the totalitarian Communism that Soviet Russia practiced during the 1950s – it was an atrocious system.
JAY ROACHI’m pretty opinionated sometimes although my political views change all the time, too. So I’m not very zealous.
JAY ROACH