Capturing Capote

Truman Capote was known to say, "Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor." Bennett Miller, the director of Capote, may not know what failure feels like, but he's definitely experiencing the sweet smell of success. The film, which follows Capote famous American author Capote as he writes In Cold Blood, a non-fiction novel about a shooting in Kansas, has garnered the usual critical acclaim and hype as a sure Oscar bet for star Philip Seymour Hoffman. Miller doesn't have much free time these days, but he managed to talk to recess while at the wheel, driving through the storied streets of Los Angeles. I've read that the writer on this project, Danny Futterman, was one of your friends. How did he first approach you with this project? Danny had never written anything before so when he called to say that he was going to write a screenplay, I regarded it with a kind of enthusiasm and confidence that one friend might have for another friend who had never done what so many have tried and have failed to do. I did not have very high hopes for it. But years passed and he delivered his first draft and even in that first draft there was a movie. Why did you choose Truman Capote as a subject? For me the interest was not in making an interesting biopic, or a biopic of any kind, but rather to do a character study that added up to more than the individual-. It's a very pure classic tragedy in American form, and that's what was interesting. For me, the fascination is with the differences between a persons public and private self. I was very attracted to the nature of the story, that of the private tragedy of a very public figure. Capote was a person who was really out in the public eye-famous, in fact, charismatic, and this story is something that was entirely interior to him. Did the fact that United Artists went out of business during the film's production affect the film? The corporate turmoil did affect the movie, but not in that way. It had been determined that UA was to be sold to Sony before the movie was greenlit, so the UA execs that greenlit this movie did so knowing they were not going to have jobs by the time this thing was in theaters. I imagine this would give them a sort of boldness to venture into something that's a bit riskier. Was there additional pressure to complete the project quickly, given the competing Capote biopic in development? Yes and no. Yes, we were aware of it and knew we couldn't take two years to finish. But at the same time, there are more powerful circumstances compelling us to finish it in a timely manner. We had very little money and we couldn't afford to drag it on. How did your previous directing experience of [1998 documentary] The Cruise influence this film? [The Cruise] is a character study. That's a movie that has absolutely no story to it and deliberately and purposefully resists a kind of biographical nature too-. The film has a thesis: a portrait need not be filled with information. You can understand a person in a couple of different ways and one is the manner in which a person expresses themselves, advertently and inadvertently, broadly and subtlely-. I'm sorry if I'm talking slowly. I'm going to make a critical decision here about left or right. I'm going to make a guess. I hope I don't guess wrong. Anyway, The Cruise is really about getting to the concealed, private side of this character, and Capote is the same way. The lessons learned on that are applicable here. It is historical, but it doesn't tell the story as much as it observes it. How much involvement did you have in crafting Philip Seymour Hoffman's depiction of Capote? That work has to be done by an actor alone in a room. It took Phil nearly half a year of him watching tapes, listening to tapes. The goal to transcend parody is something that we both shared. If anything, I was able to help keep him honesty. How do you feel about all the Oscar buzz? The most important thing about acclaim or praise or Oscar speculation is hopefully it translates into people seeing the movie. Right now, it's an early stage of release. I think it's only in 52 theaters. We're all very concerned that it gets the kind of exposure that a film needs to become a fixture in culture. I hope it's around 100 years from now, long after any awards.