Such an honor to have you on the show.
Welcome to The Daily Show.
I'm just delighted to be on The Daily Show.
And congratulations on what many people are just describing
as a stellar performance in the new movie, Bombshell.
This is one of those films
where I think a lot of people are gonna be shaken up,
because a lot of people... most people know Fox News,
even around the world, you know?
A lot of people don't know the man behind Fox News,
Roger Ailes.
A lot of people have referred to him as a genius of television.
But then, over time, we learned
that he was also a sexual predator in the workplace.
You're playing this character
who's charismatic by many accounts,
but at the same time, extremely evil.
Is that difficult to convey to people?
Well, uh, it was a...
It was wonderfully written.
Uh, Charles Randolph created this amazing character.
He didn't create it.
-Roger Ailes created the character. -Right.
But he presents it in an extraordinary way.
The-the movie is a 16-day period
in which karma just caught up
with Roger Ailes and washed him away.
So, you had to...
I had to sort of figure a way
to present all these sides of this man.
He was, uh...
-He had a volatile temper. -Mm-hmm.
He had a raucous sense of humor.
He was deeply insecure, and yet, he was very scary,
-and tyrannized his-his people. -Right.
There were... Uh, you-you...
The movie does an amazing job of just showing
how so many different women responded to him.
Some of them were scared of him, some of them succumbed to him,
some of them resisted him,
but some of them were very devoted and loyal to him.
It really is interesting,
because you see how different people respond to the same,
-you know, predatory force, you know? -Yeah.
And I guess part of it...
part of it was because of Roger's power--
he could make or break somebody's career.
He could define what you could or could not do
-Yeah. Yeah. -in the world of news, you know?
When you're... when you're reading up on Roger Ailes
and when you're preparing to play this character,
like, where did you even find information on him?
Because he was notoriously secretive.
Well, the most interesting thing I-I did, I tracked down
an old friend of mine who had actually worked
as his producing partner in the 1970s
when Ailes was in his mid-30s
and at the beginning of his career as a media consultant.
And this, uh, this friend of mine,
Stephen Rosenfield, he revealed
a completely different Roger Ailes.
Uh, he said, "This is something that nobody sees now,"
the fact that this man was kind of a...
terrific company, he could make you laugh,
uh, he was even tough on his very conservative...
-political consultancy clients, -Right.
because they were too conservative
and didn't have enough empathy.
-Wow. -I mean, I was so astonished to hear this,
I couldn't wait to get to the set and tell Jay Roach,
our director, about it.
Uh, anytime you play--
I mean, I sort of embraced
the role of the villain of the piece.
It's a movie very much about the women of Fox,
particularly these three extraordinary actresses,
-Charlize, Nicole and Margot, -Right.
uh, who...
it is their movie,
and they play very much in reaction to Roger,
and I sort of accepted the role of...
the sort of malevolent villain.
But you can't approach a character like that.
You have to approach a villain's character,
like any character, with empathy.
Find out what is it that drives him.
It's interesting you say that,
because that sometimes is the reason that these men
are able to do what they do in society,
is because they know how to reveal their empathy to people
in select moments in time, you know?
And I think without doing that you don't tell the real story,
because it becomes a caricature.
Yeah, well...
the movie puts an audience...
sort of on guard.
It's...
In a way, my own performance, I sort of tempt them
to have sympathy with the devil,
and it's a very disorienting... disorienting feeling.
-Right. -I mean, this is a man
who is loathed by so many people.
So I-I look... I just simply tried to find
the things that people loved about him.
My great... my great asset was Connie Britton
-playing Beth Ailes, his wife, -Mm-hmm.
who was completely devoted to him, protected him completely.
So in the story, her great crisis was...
discovering that all of this was true,
and being disabused and disillusioned
-Right. -by her own husband.
I mean, these are big, high-stakes, emotional stories
of sort of Shakespearian scope.
And because it's about a...
a gigantic institution like Fox News,
which has a lot to do with our entire culture,
-Yes. -uh... as I say,
the stakes are monumentally high.
It's interesting that you say that, you know,
because you-you're somebody who...
people have known and loved for a very long time.
And likely many performers, you have kept
your politics to yourself for the most part.
You know, you-you... a lot of people have chosen to say,
like, hey, the art will speak for itself and then I will,
I will privately vote and I will cast my ballot,
but in the age of Donald Trump,
you have become outspoken about what you don't like about him
and why you don't... appreciate this administration.
In fact, you even wrote a book, you know?
Uh, you illustrated this-this book called, uh, Dumpty.
-Right? -Mm-hmm, yes.
-(audience laughing) -And, uh...
that over there...
(audience cheering)
Uh, it's, it's really just a book, you know,
-of all the, um... -Well, you know, we--
It's interesting because it's verse, as well.
Why-why did you choose to write it in that way?
-Well, we-- -Is it, is it to mock?
Is it to, like, what, or is it
how you process the world we're living in?
Well, it is true.
The-the Age of Trump has drawn me out politically,
as it has done a lot of people.
And, but I'm an entertainer, how do I respond to this?
By just finding the funny.
The way you do, the way Stephen and John Oliver do.
-Right. -I mean, to me,
you're my great heroes these days.
-Oh, no, you're too kind. -Because you-you...
(audience cheering)
-I mean... -Oh, no, thank you.
I...
I mean, you have found a brilliant way
of sort of taking your own reactions,
your own political reaction to this... reality.
And making it into something that is both an entertainment
and-and exposing the truth.
This is my version of that.
Uh, they're doggerel poems.
Uh, there as funny as-as I could possibly make them.
(Noah laughs) Right!
Uh, and yet, there's an awful lot of anger in there.
And it's, uh, this is...
Uh, there are 33 poems in it.
-Mm-hmm. -Each one of the...
The subject of each one is one of the amazing cast
of characters from the Trump administration.
-Right. -Most of whom are gone by now.
-He's, he's... -Right, yeah, I mean, I was,
I was intrigued because, I mean, in the time
it took me to read the Scaramucci poem,
he was in and out of the White House.
Right, exactly!
That, that is--
I mean, people are-- I-I started, like,
oh, my God, I completely forgot about Tom Price.
-Right. -And-and John Kelly.
These people, they just disappeared from view.
And, uh, as a result, this has become a mini, little
history lesson on what we've lived through
for the last two years.
-You know what... -But, uh, but I mean, they--
I'm an actor and I respond to amazing,
larger-than-life characters.
Look at them all.
(laughs)
And, uh-uh, I have my way of skewering every one of them.
(audience whooping, cheering)
-You do a fantastic job. -Thank you.
Not just in the book, but in the movie, as well.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
-Thank you, Trevor. -Really wonderful having you.
(audience cheering)
The book Dumpty is available now.
Bombshell opens in New York and Los Angeles December 13,
and will be in theaters nationwide December 20.
John Lithgow, everybody!