Audiences for politically charged dramas based on actual events dont always get the whole truth.
Consider the questions swirling around "Fair Game," the recent retelling of the Valerie Plame scandal starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn. The film paints
Actor Barry Pepper had a similar fear while reading the script for "Casino Jack," the feature opening in Washington on Wednesday depicting the rise and precipitous fall of uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
"That was one of the main questions I had going into it. How accurate is this?" says Mr. Pepper, the intense actor known for roles in "Saving Private Ryan" and the HBO biopic "61."
He says the legal ramifications helped allay those concerns.
"You have to hire a First Amendment lawyer to vet for accuracies," Mr. Pepper says of film projects like "Casino Jack." "You cant just go forward. [Otherwise,] youre in for a world of hurt with lawsuits."
It also helped to have access to reams of material in the public record regarding the case, including e-mails sent between the real life players in the Abramoff scandal. Consider it the latest proof of reality being stranger than fiction.
"Some of the most humorous scenes in the script were verbatim [from transcripts]," says Mr. Pepper, who also has a small but corrosive role in the new Coen brothers remake of "True Grit," opening Wednesday.
"Casino Jack" stars Kevin Spacey as the disgraced lobbyist, a Republican notorious for swindling American Indians and corrupting public officials. Mr. Pepper plays Michael Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay who helped Abramoff pull off his acts.
Mr. Spacey chatted with an imprisoned Abramoff for background on the story, but Mr. Pepper had to settle for speaking with some of Scanlons old associates to fill in the character blanks.
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