Armando Iannucci, the British filmmaker behind the upcoming political satire “In the Loop,” said while the project is not a documentary, he was driven to get the details right. And that included some investigation into the language used in Washington’s halls of power.
“I did a bit of profanity research,” Iannucci told Yeas & Nays last week. “They don’t swear in the State Department, but they do in the Pentagon.”
But for all of his research into Washington for the project — which follows a group of British politicians and staffers as they visit the U.S. in the run-up to war — the film’s most notable swearer is a British communications director that leaves a trail of obscenities wherever he goes.
Could he be based on a real person, maybe Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s notoriously dirty-mouthed chief of staff?
No, said Iannucci. Shooting on the movie wrapped last summer, before Emanuel was in the White House. He said the character was based more upon former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spin doctors, “who were notoriously foul-mouthed.”
“Then Rahm Emanuel came along,” added Iannucci, satisfied. “You could say we predicted his rise.”
But four-letter words weren’t his only focus in researching for the movie. He met staffers from the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA, think tanks and the Senate. “Tell me the dull stuff,” he asked them. “What time do you go home at night, what’s your boss like? You start hearing about the careerism, hanging around the more senior people in an effort to get noticed.”
For example, he discovered staffers under Donald Rumsfeld took up squash, knowing that he played. And at the State Department, a few even took up music, the better to impress then-Secretary Condoleezza Rice, a concert pianist.
Iannucci wasn’t the only one doing research. James Gandolfini, who plays a high-ranking officer at the Pentagon, also came to town, asking generals to lunch and touring the Pentagon to see how the place works.
In explaining the “Sopranos” star’s involvement, Iannucci explained that the two had met through HBO. Iannucci sent him the script, and he accepted the role. And as for how he performed in a comedy? “He’s associated with a certain role, but he’s an actor” first and foremost, said Iannucci.
The film opens Friday at the Landmark E Street Cinema and Bethesda Row Cinema.
Mimi Kennedy and James Gandolfini in IN THE LOOP, directed by Armando Iannucci. (Photo: Nicola Dove) Above: Armando Iannucci (photo: Trevor Leighton)
