Langella on GNGL

There is little doubt of the parallels between the jaundiced state of politics as they exist now and how similar events unfolded during the Red Scare of the 1950s as portrayed in Good Night, and Good Luck.
“Did you watch CNN this morning?,” Frank Langella asks on the other end of the phone referring to Harriet Miers withdrawing her nomination for the Supreme Court. Langella plays CBS owner William Paley in the George Clooney directed film. “Nobody called him Bill except Murrow,” notes Langella.
Good Night, and Good Luck examines the public battle between Senator Joe McCarthy and CBS news correspondent Edward R. Murrow that took to the television airwaves in 1953. As Paley, Langella lends a commanding presence.
One shot in particular captures Paley walking through a part of his empty studio late at night. He puts his coat on a railing as he walks past monitors, the movement exuding the kind of authority that might be seen by a captain strolling the deck of his ship.
“I like playing CEOs, heads of state,” remarks Langella. As an actor Langella finds a central core to the character he portrays. “I trust my instincts and then an internal engine takes over.”
A quick glance at Langella’s accomplished career leaves no doubt he can handle any role. He went from his first film role in Mel Brooks’ The Twelve Chair straight into The Diary of a Mad Housewife, the latter being released first and a critical hit in 1970. Langella was the Dracula of the Me Decade appearing as the bloodsucker in the Broadway revival in 1977 and the subsequent movie in 1979. Langella recalled Dracula’s opening night and speaking afterwards with Netta Harrigan (also Mrs. Josh Logan) who had played the part of the maid in the original 1927 production that launched Bela Lugosi.
Langella has won two Tony Awards, one for his role in the 1975 Edward Albee play Seascape. “Everybody told me it was the wrong career move – to play a lizard on Broadway.” They were wrong and Langella also got to act opposite Deborah Kerr. “Kerr was a lesson on how stars behave,” Langella advised.
Clooney shot GNGL on gray scale sets that depict the CBS studios, their offices and a bar across the street; it’s all interiors, yet the nuance of the black and white film provide a feeling of spaciousness in confined quarters. Although the film has no true establishing shots Langella mentions he did shoot a scene where he walks to his car that was cut. “George works one-on-one with his actors. He brings dignity to the acting.”
There’s also a bridging sequence in the middle of the film that features actual congressional film footage of McCarthy, along with Roy Cohn and, look closely, Robert Kennedy. “George’s artistry lets the Kennedy footage just happen,” says Langella, adding “This is a film that will be curriculum.”