- Hi, this is Marya Gullo from the Hollywood Reporter
and I'm in studio today with Sara Paxton.
Hey, how's it going? - Hey.
I'm well, how are you?
- Good!
I'm here to talk about
The Front Runner with you. - Yay!
- Your new movie!
So tell me a little bit about how you got involved
in this project, 'cause it is based on
real true events movie. - Yeah.
- So, how did you... - Get involved?
- Yeah?
- Yeah, well, it's interesting.
You know the movie takes place, it's a true story.
And it takes place during the 1988 Presidential campaign
and I was born in 1988, so, I don't have any actual,
- Right, you don't have any
memories or reference or, - Memories, or like,
recollections of this time.
But, it's funny, a couple years ago, I was in my car
driving and I was listening to this podcast called Radiolab.
- Um-hmm.
- And the episode was about Gary Hart and Donna Rice
and everything that happened.
And I'm driving and I must have been going to an audition
or something, I had 10 outfits in my backseat
and I'm driving my car listening to this thing.
And I thought is was so fascinating.
It was such an interesting story and I remember
wondering to myself why I didn't know about this
beforehand and why this wasn't talked about more.
And then I went about my day and I didn't think about it
again until a year after that, I got the script
sent to me for The Front Runner.
And I was so excited because I was familiar
with the story because of the podcast.
And then I auditioned.
I went in and I read with Jason and I was,
I was just so excited to go read for him that I didn't even
think, you know, I wasn't even like, oh, I was like,
I wasn't thinking I hope I get it, I was just like,
this would be a dream come true but it's really exciting
just to even go and read for somebody like him,
this material, you know,
so I was like-- - Almost like,
it's good practice.
- I was just like, whatever happens, this,
if this is the end of the line then that's great.
This is also a wonderful thing for me and a dream come true.
And then I got a call, they wanted me to do a chemistry
test, a screen test, with J.K. Simmons and Molly Ephraim,
who plays Irene Kelly. - Yes.
- And so I was like, that's also wonderful.
That's great, I'll go do that.
And that was amazing.
And then a little while later, that same day,
I was like, Ah, you know, whatever happens, happens
and as long as I did my best, I'm proud of myself.
And then the phone rang when I was home and I got the part
and I was holding my dog jumping and crying, so that's my
long-winded story about that. - Amazing!
When did you know that Hugh Jackman
was going to play Gary Hart?
- I knew when they sent me the script.
He was already attached. - Okay, so you had known that
ahead of time.
- Yes, yeah.
- Okay, so, I wanted to ask you about the responsibility
that you have to play a real-life character.
So you play Donna Rice and she's a real-life character.
She's still alive and she has seen this movie.
So what was it like kind of going in, creating a character,
knowing that this person actually existed?
Or did you actually meet her beforehand?
- Well, right after I finished jumping up and down
celebrating with my dog, the reality set in
that I was going to be playing a real person,
this woman who is alive and well and can
watch my performance and see what I'm saying about the film.
And I got really nervous, you know, it's so intimidating.
It feels like a really big responsibility,
especially when my part in the film is the darkest moment
of her life and I felt like I had to do it justice.
I did as much research as I could.
There's not a whole lot out there about Donna
from that time.
I think because it was just pre-internet.
And so there's not really a lot.
- And what exists is very tabloidy.
- Exactly, it's not what's in the version of Donna
that we are portraying within the script.
So I did what I could but
really I just used the script
as my roadmap and what I cared the most about was
just capturing the empathy of this woman in this situation.
And I didn't actually, I haven't met Donna,
I haven't spoken to her.
When I, before we started filming, I talked to Jason
about it and he, we decided that if I was going to meet her,
it didn't really, it wasn't going to help me because
I wasn't looking to mimic her or do an impersonation of her.
I was, like I said, I wanted to capture the empathy and
what was happening with Donna in that moment.
So I didn't meet her.
But I heard that, Jason called me and he told me that
she has seen the film and that she loved it,
and that she was really happy with my portrayal of her.
And so that's all I could ask for.
That made, it's so gratifying knowing that she was happy,
because she was the, she's the critic that I was
the most worried about.
- Right, right.
You know, what Jason Reitman has said is that
she was happy that she was portrayed compassionately.
What does that mean to you, portrayed compassionately?
- You know, I think that at the time, when all this
happened, I think that she was portrayed as
kind of like a caricature, like a one-dimensional person.
She was like this villain,
this bimbo-- - Right, or floozy.
- Yeah, she was like this bimbo who brought down
the campaign and I was so, when I first read the script,
knowing what I knew about the story, I was so happy
reading how she was portrayed.
She was written with dignity and respect,
and she was a person who
was so much more than what she was portrayed as.
She was a smart, highly educated, ambitious woman,
a woman with agency who had
dreams of advancing herself and
potentially getting involved in politics.
I think what's, what I'm so excited about, about this film
is I feel like she's finally getting the voice
that she didn't have 30 years ago.
- Yeah, you finally can get to see her side of the story.
- Yeah.
- There's a scene where you are being interrogated,
basically, by J.K. Simmons and
that's kind of the most dramatic point.
Can you tell me a little bit about how you had to
dig into your character in order to do that scene.
- Honestly, I didn't feel like I had to dig very far.
I mean, when I read the script, I felt like I connected
with Donna immediately. - You could relate,
you could relate to what she's saying.
- Totally, I could totally relate to her.
And it just like, boom, it hit me.
So I didn't feel like I needed to dig very deep.
It also helps that J.K. Simmons is the actor
that I'm acting opposite, this incredible
Academy Award-winning powerhouse man, so that helps.
But yeah, I related to her a lot.
I think that a lot of women can relate to Donna
in her situation and I could.
But also the actor in me relates to her because
I've been doing this for a really long time.
I started acting when I was six, so I was,
most of my whole life I've been doing this.
And when you're an actor, people are always
wanting to put you in a box and pigeon-hole you
and tell you who you are and what you're good at
and that kind of thing.
And Donna was a person how was trying to avoid
being pigeon-holed and being placed in a box
her whole life.
I mean, I have, in that scene, I have a line
where I say, I did everything that I could do
to avoid having men look at you the way that
you're looking at me right now.
So it's just so tragic.
She spent her whole life trying to not be placed in a box
and then she gets trapped in that box
for the rest of her life.
- Yeah, yeah.
You know, both parties, Gary Hart and Donna Rice have,
to this day, denied that they had a sexual relationship.
But the thing that was really the evidence,
and I say that in quotes, that people took
was the photo of them on the boat together,
because she's sitting on his lap.
That wasn't filmed for the movie.
Is there a reason why they didn't do that?
- Yeah, yeah, the reason is that this movie takes place
in just a three-week span of time,
three weeks before the primary election.
- Right.
- And in that three weeks, he's the front runner,
he's on top, the scandal breaks,
the campaign is completely derailed.
And in real life, the photo didn't come out until
several weeks after this time, so that's why.
- Right, it came out months later.
- Yeah.
- But you do have a boat scene with Hugh Jackman,
- I do. - where you're both
on the boat together.
What was that like?
You know, what I love about Jason Reitman as a director
is his style is to create so much activity
and movement around the main characters.
So you're seeing this whole tableau
of people just buzzing and talking and walking
and action around the characters,
and then you frame into the characters.
So what was it like filming that scene?
It seemed very dynamic.
- It's interesting because
the way we filmed is was actually not,
it wasn't planned to be like that,
as far as I knew.
I mean, we shot coverage of me on the boat
that is not in the film.
And I think it's a good thing.
I love the way it ends up where you see this woman
and you're like, Oh gosh, it's her.
And we zoom in on Hugh's face and
nothing is said but you know exactly what's going on.
And I think it makes a much stronger impact that you
meet Donna right in the middle of the interrogation.
You just really, really feel for her.
- Yeah.
You know, there's so many different opinions
represented in this movie.
It's about privacy, it's about how the Press deals with
celebrities or politicians.
It's how politicians deal with the Press.
What did you learn from making this movie?
Did you have any questions that popped up or questions
that were answered? - Totally!
I learned so much and I still have so many questions.
I mean, I think that's the, I think that, you know,
I think and Jason would say himself that this,
that's the point of this film,
is that it doesn't answer any of these questions.
And there is no classic hero or classic villain.
It merely asks the questions and then
puts them up for debate for the audience.
Yes, my head, I saw the movie for the first time and
my head was spinning, I have so many questions.
But I learned a lot.
Because I was born in '88, at that time,
the 24-hour news cycle was,
by the time I was cognizant of the news,
the 24-hour news cycle was already in effect.
So I had, it just didn't even occur to me that
there had been a time when
it wasn't what it is now.
I mean, obviously, people used to get their information,
their news from the newspaper hitting the stand
and you had to wait for and that was how you got it.
But things like CNN were just in their infancy
when I was a baby, so
I learned a lot about that.
And now things have taken off even further
with social media.
- Yeah.
- It just keeps changing.
- Yes, it just keeps getting more and more precise
or instant.
- Instant, yeah--
- It's just getting more and more instant.
- I know, yeah.
It went from newspaper to now it's
every hour there seems to be a new story.
- Before I let you do, I just want to ask you a few
questions about your career. - Sure, yeah!
- First job that made you think, I've made it!
- Uh, that's a good question.
I guess, that's hard because I've been doing this
for such a long time that I think that you
train yourself as an actor to not really have that thought.
Because the only thing that I've ever cared about
was having a long career and just to consistently
be working and I've been so lucky to have that.
I've always, I've cared more about,
my career is like a ladder and every step
is this rung that I'm climbing and so,
I try to think about it more like that.
But I do remember the first time I thought to myself,
Oh, I think I could do this as a career!
Because when I was younger, I started acting because
I'm an only child and I spent my childhood
with the television and watching the same VHS tapes
over and over and over again, and just rewinding them
and putting them back in.
And so I just love movies.
- Anything come to mind?
- What I used to watch?
I think my taste was a little different when I was younger.
Being a kid I went from watching
Ace Ventura Pet Detective II to like (laughing).
No, but when I was, I was raised on Old Hollywood.
I loved Judy Garland and Grace Kelly and
John Wayne and The Quiet Man and Gone With the Wind.
Those were the things that I was watching and I just
loved watching these starlets, these actresses.
So that's where my dream sort of began.
And then I started, I kind of fell into it because,
I don't know, this is a dumb story, but,
my aunt owns a children's clothing store in LA.
- Um-hmm.
- And when me and my cousins were really little kids,
we did a print ad for the newspaper.
- Ahh!
- So we were like modeling clothes and the photographer
gave my cousin his card to do
acting classes or something and I got really jealous.
I didn't know that was possible,
I didn't know you could do that.
So then I started doing it because of that.
So, it wasn't until I got a little bit older,
I did this movie called Aquamarine,
where I was a mermaid.
I started thinking, I was like 16, and I was like,
Oh, I think this could be a career, I love this!
I want to do this forever.
- Best day on the set of The Front Runner.
What was your best day on the set?
- That's a tough question because my character
spends the whole time crying in a corner.
- Yes.
- Everyone else is having fun, shucking and jiving.
- And you're getting continual makeup touch ups for
your smeared makeup. - Yeah, yeah.
Probably being on the boat, doing all the boat stuff
was really fun.
We filmed in Savannah and it was really fun
doing scenes with Hugh.
He's such a nice guy.
He's like a fun, positive, awesome guy.
And Jason really cultivates this
intimate family environment on set.
So it was nice to be on the boat and be having
a good time with everyone and not be sad and crying.
- Last movie that made you cry, speaking of crying.
- Oh my gosh, that's a good question.
Okay, when you're on a plane.
- Yes.
You get emotional. - I'll cry not matter what
on the plane! - I know.
- But, that being said, I watched Coco, the animated movie.
- Yup, that got me, too, also on a plane.
- I was crying like crazy!
I was sitting in the middle seat with two big dudes,
like big, tough-looking guys next to me.
And all three of us started watching Coco
at the exact same time.
And I was crying and I was like, Oh, my god,
and then I look over and this guy's crying too
and then I look over and this guy's crying too.
We're all crying for Coco.
- Yeah, yeah, that's a good one.
- Yeah.
- Worse audition story.
- So many (laughing).
Gosh, there really are so many.
The first one that comes to mind is, I was a little kid and,
I had lost all my front teeth at the same time,
which looks really creepy.
So I can't go into a Barbie commercial audition
with all my teeth missing.
My mom is a dentist so she made me this little flipper,
this little fake thing up in my mouth for my audition
and I was like, Oh great.
And I was doing my audition and I was like,
Thsara Paxthton, blah, blah, blah, and then my flipper
flew out and hit the camera, and I was like,
I'll justh throw mythelf out, I'll go (laughing).
No, that was pretty bad.
- That's amazing.
You know that's something maybe when you're in your 80s,
you could have that same audition story (laughing).
- You're right!
I have something to look forward to.
- Sara Paxton, thank you so much for being here.
- Thank you!
- The movie is The Front Runner.
See it, it's out in theaters.
Bye!