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WAMG Talks With MICHAEL CUESTA: KILL THE MESSENGER

By Melissa Howland | October 16, 2014

KILL THE MESSENGER, the dramatic thriller based on the true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb is in theaters now, and gaining a lot of buzz.

Read Jim Batts’ review HERE.

Recently, I had the chance to sit down with director Michael Cuesta, along with a small group of press, to talk about the film. Check it out below.

Two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner (“The Bourne Legacy”) leads an all-star cast in a dramatic thriller based on the remarkable true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb. Webb stumbles onto a story which leads to the shady origins of the men who started the crack epidemic on the nation’s streets…and further alleges that the CIA was aware of major dealers who were smuggling cocaine into the U.S., and using the profits to arm rebels fighting in Nicaragua. Despite warnings from drug kingpins and CIA operatives to stop his investigation, Webb keeps digging to uncover a conspiracy with explosive implications. His journey takes him from the prisons of California to the villages of Nicaragua to the highest corridors of power in Washington, D.C. – and draws the kind of attention that threatens not just his career, but his family and his life.

This is such a fascinating true story. At what did it come about that you wanted to tell this in film form?

MICHAEL CUESTA : From the moment I read the script. I was raw last person to come on. Jeremy [Renner] was already attached to the project as a producer and an actor. When I read it I remembered the story, but I was really taken by… he was brought down by his own kind. That, to me, was a great, tragic irony, and something that I felt was really worth talking about… that injustice. Also, his own passion. The legality. The character, or the real guy… his belief in… He believed in journalism, and getting the truth out in such a deep, personal way. Then to have that turn on you… that one thing. That euphemism. I was really taken by it.

It’s also relevant to a lot of things today. Not only to the political genre, but all kinds of businesses. Did you take that into account when you were making it? Or was it something that just kind of sat in the background?

MICHAEL CUESTA : The rabbit hole? Yeah. Of course it’s relevant. Today, as far as… some stories are too true to tell. That idea is extremely relevant as far as that… What I loved about Gary’s character, and I remember directing the scene in the movie with Jeremy, was when Michael Sheen says ‘Some stories are just too true to tell.’ and Gary just sort of laughs it off like it’s bullshit… like ‘I don’t get that. I don’t even comprehend that. ‘ That, to me was just ‘Wow!’. It takes a guy like that to continue to dig into a story like that. It really takes that person that’s a bit of an outsider, and he was an outsider. He was a David and Goliath. He was David, even though he doesn’t win. I think that’s incredibly relevant. I think what you just said about it being in this business, or in the business of Hollywood… In any business it’s relevant. The story, I think, is universal because of that. I think people have no problem getting on Jeremy’s shoulders in the movie and relating to what he does with satisfaction. You’re right with him through it.

What were some of the challenges while you were creating the film?

MICHAEL CUESTA : Challenges? I would say… The typical film logistics is like ‘Ok. The studio wants to shoot in Atlanta and this takes place in San Jose.’ or ‘I can’t go to Central America because we can’t afford it, so how do we make this look like Nicaragua?’. All of those filmmaker production-y issues are challenging, but I figure it out. That’s my job. It’s the movie makers, filmmakers job to do. The casting wasn’t that much of a challenge, I have to say. People really liked the script. Each part was very clear on how it played into the story, and I think… You’ve got Ray Liotta coming in for a couple of days, Andy Garcia coming in for 2-3 days, and Tim Blake Nelson… They all knew… Well, they probably knew that they wouldn’t be cut out of the movie because you can’t not have that scene because it’s such an important part of this guys story, and piecing the story together. I would say that that wasn’t that challenging, because we were able to get the actors. We sent the script out and they were into it.

Prior to making the movie, during or even now were/are there any concerns about your own safety since this goes pretty deep with the CIA and drug dealers, and naming of names?

MICHAEL CUESTA : You know, I haven’t really thought of… No. [Laughs] A lot of these people aren’t around. We did change some names. ‘Freeway’ Ricky Ross obviously is in the film, and he’s going to be at the screening tomorrow night, and he’s going to be in the Q&A with me. There’s a documentary coming out about him called CRACK IN THE SYSTEM that Mark Levin made. As far as the CIA… I guess they just ignore it. It’s so long ago. They’re not going to start sending people out. It’s only going to bring attention to it, so they just ignore it. There have been a lot of filmmakers who have been down this path. I don’t know if any filmmakers have been threatened, or anything like that, but I was never worried about it. It’s been written on. There have been books.

Did you use any other source material other than Gary’s writing to inspire the filmmaking process, or the actors?

MICHAEL CUESTA : Let’s see… The main sources were Gary’s book ‘Kill The Messenger’, Nick Schou, Peter, who wrote the script was an investigative reporter a few years back, and then went on to write scripts, and direct movies… I think he’s directing another one now. He checked into some sources. I don’t know specifically his own work beyond working off the source. I went into a lot of books, and it’s no secret that the CIA had their hand in the drug trade. It dates back to the Vietnam War, and the Afghan wars. That’s all been written about. It’s more of the story of Webb being turned on the way he was. Obviously no one knew about this one connection through these few dealers where that cook was sold wholesale to Ricky, and Ricky didn’t know where it was going. I made it a point to show that in court, and show him go [Cuesta makes a stunned face] ‘Holy shit!’. So, that’s the big, new thing that came out.