He was the highest-paid screenwriter in the world, but in 1947, after refusing to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Dalton Trumbo found himself first in prison for contempt, then blacklisted as one of the so-called “Hollywood Ten” for his communist sympathies.
After returning to California from his yearlong stint in a Kentucky jail, Trumbo figured out a way around not being able to put his name on any new scripts: Using a series of pseudonyms and the names of dummy writers, the prolific scribe knocked out a plethora of cheapies for low-rent Hollywood producers who agreed to look the other way — getting his Oscar-winning talents for pennies on the dollar.
“We got to know the daughters, Mitzi and Niki Trumbo, who grew up in a household where their father was writing scripts in secret, and they told us what it was like to walk in and hear him muttering characters’ line while in the bathtub drinking scotch and smoking cigarettes,” said Jay Roach, director of the new film “Trumbo,” opening in the District Thursday. “I think that’s what great drama does, makes you go, ’What would it be like to be there in that household?’”
Primarily known for his comedic films such as “Meet the Parents,” “Austin Powers in Goldmember” and “Dinner for Schmucks,” Mr. Roach has also touched on politics before in the real-life election dramas “Recount” and “Game Change.”
For “Trumbo,” he had only one actor in mind to play the disgraced screenwriter.
“They were throwing big names at us for a while, and when I finally arrived at the idea of Bryan [Cranston] doing it, I just said, ’That’s so perfect, I’m not doing it unless he’s it,’” Mr. Roach said of his leading man.
However, even though Mr. Cranston achieved significant late-career worldwide acclaim thanks to his role as antihero Walter White on the AMC series “Breaking Bad” — thereby allowing him to choose almost any role he wanted — the financial backers of “Trumbo” weren’t keen on the meth-cooking chemistry teacher-portraying actor in mind.
“It’s determined a lot by their list — who sells what,” Mr. Cranston told The Washington Times. “It’s all a calculable kind of thing.”
Taking on the impromptu persona of a stuffy studio suit, Mr. Cranston mimed a bean counter going over an imaginary list of A-listers and their global box office value.
“What about [Matthew] McConaughey? Well, let’s see, in Germany we can get [this much box office return]. Cranston? No. Think of someone else.”
As Mr. Roach laughed good-naturedly at his leading man’s dressing down the business of showbiz, Mr. Cranston, 59, smiled amiably, his deep baritone betraying the charisma that has turned him into one of the business’ most-sought-out actors.
“It’s all this measured kind of thing,” Mr. Cranston said of the suits’ machinations. “It’s not very creative, but for those people who are on the business side of making movies, I guess it’s understandable, and they have their own matrix.”
“Fortunately, they listened to me and they gave us the money anyway,” Mr. Roach added of pushing successfully for Mr. Cranston.
The film “Trumbo” traces the writer’s life from the mid-1940s until roughly the time he was “outed” as a ghostwriter with the release of “Spartacus” in 1960. Star Kirk Douglas — portrayed in “Trumbo” by New Zealand actor Dean O’Gorman — fired the previous director and then hired Stanley Kubrick. The shoot was incredibly fraught and went wildly overbudget; Mr. Douglas and Kubrick fought voraciously.
But until the premiere, no one had any idea the screenplay had been penned by the blacklisted scribe — nor that he had in fact been farming out work to other Hollywood Ten writers.
As shown in the film, Trumbo all but weeps upon finally, at long last, seeing his name once again in lights.
Mr. Roach said that Mr. Douglas “had a really great take on who Trumbo was and what it was like to work with him.”
Mr. Roach and Mr. Cranston were both proud to relate that Mr. Douglas, now 98, gave Mr. O’Gorman’s interpretation of the Hollywood legend’s “character” his blessing.
“He had one serious criticism about it,” Mr. Cranston relates. “He said, ’I don’t understand why I wasn’t called to play Kirk Douglas.’”
“Can you imagine the fear of not having him like his own acting?” Mr. Roach added.
While Trumbo’s years as a ghostwriter nabbed him two Oscars for “Roman Holiday” and “The Brave One” — neither of which he was able to accept at the time — Mr. Roach said it took courageous Hollywood players such as Mr. Douglas and “Exodus” director Otto Preminger not only to take a chance on Trumbo, but also to publicly acknowledge they were hiring him.
“To do so was almost instant doom to your project to put one of these guys on your project,” Mr. Roach said of employing a blacklisted writer.
While many of Trumbo’s former friends abandoned him following the HUAC business, friends like actor Edward G. Robinson (played in “Trumbo” by Michael Stuhlbarg) assisted with the substantial legal bills Trumbo and others of the Hollywood Ten ran up in their own defense.
Trumbo was finally granted his Oscar for “The Brave One” shortly before his death in 1975. While he passed before his statue for “Roman Holiday” could be rightfully assigned, the Academy handed the award to Trumbo’s widow Cleo in 1993. Many saw it as a final vindication, but Mr. Roach and Mr. Cranston both say that the fight for freedom of expression continues in the U.S. even now.
“The most American thing you can do is voice your opinion [even] it might be an unpopular opinion,” Mr. Roach said. “This is where I think [“Trumbo” is] a completely nonpartisan story. It is a story about whatever extreme you are, unless you’re actually trying to overthrow the government, you should be able to say anything you want. And especially artists like Trumbo, that’s the guy you want talking.
“When you hear candidates nowadays threatening to shut down the federal funding of a university because they maybe have someone who is speaking from a strong point of view, then all of us, no matter what your political persuasions, I hope they would say, ’Hold on, I just saw this movie “Trumbo,” and I’m gonna to raise some questions,’” he said.
Mr. Cranston believes that contemporary politics has become so polarized that one side cannot even credit the opposition for a good idea.
“The idea of politics has now become, as it has in American business, a sense of winning as opposed to justice,” he said. “What is right, what is best takes a backseat to what is going to retain power. I don’t know how we got to that point, but it’s not beneficial to the public.”
Both Mr. Cranston and Mr. Trumbo say that they hope the film nudges people to perhaps give audience to ideas unlike their own and with which they may disagree. Trumbo gave voice to many, and he paid a hefty public and professional price for espousing his own personal beliefs in such a hostile climate.
“You never know if it’s going to happen — the kind of impact you’re going to have,” Mr. Roach said.
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
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