Last night I attended a screening of Breach. Originally released in February of this year, Breach is based on the true story of FBI agent Robert Hanssen. He's the guy who spent 22 years at the Bureau passing secrets to Russia. Huge secrets, like our government's continuity plan for example (what the President, V.P, and Congress do in the event of a nuclear or terrorist attack on D.C.). He cost the lives of a bunch of 
American agents and who knows how many billions of dollars to the U.S. government. In fact, the FBI says they're still trying to crawl out from all the damage Hanssen did.
American agents and who knows how many billions of dollars to the U.S. government. In fact, the FBI says they're still trying to crawl out from all the damage Hanssen did. I saw Breach when it came out in February but was lured back to see it again by the prospect of seeing Chris Cooper, who plays Hanssen, and director/co-writer Billy Ray in person for a Q&A following the film. Chris is one of my favorite actors. He's one of those guys who seems to play a completely different character every time. A character actor, as they say. If you like Chris, you must give thanks to writer-director John Sayles. He gave Chris his very first movie role in Matewan about 20 years ago, the true story of the 1920 miners riots in Matewan, West Virginia. Mr. Sayles gave Chris roles in future flicks like City of Hope, Lone Star (one of my favorite movies ever), and Silver City, and meanwhile Chris's career has blasted off.
If you haven't seen Breach, you absolutely must. Instead of covering the entire 22-year span of Hanssen's traitorous adventures, it dramatizes the final two months leading up to his arrest and capture (December 2000 to February 2001). In fact, this really isn't Hanssen's story. It's the story of young Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe), the FBI upstart trying to make agent. It's in December of 2000 when he's tasked to work with Hanssen. On the surface he's supposed to be Hanssen's assistant or what have you, but behind the scenes he logs Hanssen's every move and relays all that intel to the 500 agents on the Hanssen task force. The idea is that the Bureau will use that intel to catch him in the act of making a drop, which will give them the best chance of putting him away for a long time. I know this flick was easy to miss because it came out in the winter, traditionally a celluloid wasteland bordered on the north by Oscar bait and on the south by the summer popcorn fare. The powers that be at Universal really should have saved this for the fall because Chris's performance is easily one of the best of 2007. But you know the Oscars. If a movie comes out before Labor Day, it doesn't matter how awesome the acting, writing, or directing is. The esteemed Academy most likely won't remember it. Of course there've been exceptions, but I have an awful feeling this won't be one of 'em.
As for director/co-writer Billy Ray, he's a young buck. I'll bet you he isn't much more than half Chris's age. Breach is only his second film. His first was 2003's Shattered Glass. Like Breach, Shattered Glass is a true story set in Washington, D.C. about a pathological weirdo. In this case it's Stephen Glass, a young journalist who worked at The New Republic from 1995-98 and had a
stellar career there. Unfortunately, 27 of his 41 articles were phony. Dude concocted sources, quotes, 'n whatnot, sometimes entire stories, all for the purposes of climbing as high as he could as fast as he could. And it was all working great, but that whole getting-caught thing got in the way. His fall was even faster. Playing Stephen Glass was that kid who played Anakin Skywalker in the second and third Star Wars prequels. It's hard to tell if he's a good actor based on those films because the writing wasn't very good, but Shattered Glass was very well made and proves beyond a doubt that the kid's got acting chops. Anyway, check it out.
stellar career there. Unfortunately, 27 of his 41 articles were phony. Dude concocted sources, quotes, 'n whatnot, sometimes entire stories, all for the purposes of climbing as high as he could as fast as he could. And it was all working great, but that whole getting-caught thing got in the way. His fall was even faster. Playing Stephen Glass was that kid who played Anakin Skywalker in the second and third Star Wars prequels. It's hard to tell if he's a good actor based on those films because the writing wasn't very good, but Shattered Glass was very well made and proves beyond a doubt that the kid's got acting chops. Anyway, check it out.The Q&A afterward was moderated by Kevin Thomas. He used to be a full-time movie critic at the Los Angeles Times but is sort of semi-retired now. He doesn't always moderate these Q&As, so it's always a special treat when he does. Kevin handled the Max von Sydow event three weeks ago. He got things started by noting not just how dominant Chris Cooper's performance was, but how authentic the movie as a whole felt. That got Billy Ray all revved up about how he did go to certain lengths to be as true to the events as he could. Granted, most of the film was shot in Toronto, not Washington, D.C. But for example, Billy did get to shoot certain scenes inside the J. Edgar Hoover Building (FBI headquarters) in D.C., which he said no other movie had ever been able to do. Even better, he filmed the arrest and capture sequence in the actual 
locations where Robert Hanssen was arrested and caught. For example, when you see Chris Cooper placing that package under the bridge in Foxstone Park in Vienna, Virginia, they really did shoot that scene in the real Foxstone Park, at the real bridge where the real Robert Hanssen made what would be his final drop. And then, when Chris Cooper is arrested back at his car, that's the actual location where the real Hanssen was arrested. We're not just talking about the same general neighborhood, but the actual spot where Hanssen was nabbed. Hanssen lived in Vienna and had parked his car about three blocks from his house. So that's where Billy Ray had Chris Cooper park in the film. And they even shot it during the same time of year. Robert Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001. Billy Ray filmed the capture scene on February 6, 2006. The weather was the same, the lighting was the same. Everything was just as it had been when the real Hanssen was caught. The arrest happened in front of this woman's house. Her name's Pinkie, apparently. Or at least that's her nickname. She lived there then, and she's still there. When the crew was filming, she was very hospitable. All decked out in a pink sweater that said something like "I live where Robert Hanssen was nabbed," Pinkie kept the cast and crew warm in her house between takes and served them cider 'n whatnot.
locations where Robert Hanssen was arrested and caught. For example, when you see Chris Cooper placing that package under the bridge in Foxstone Park in Vienna, Virginia, they really did shoot that scene in the real Foxstone Park, at the real bridge where the real Robert Hanssen made what would be his final drop. And then, when Chris Cooper is arrested back at his car, that's the actual location where the real Hanssen was arrested. We're not just talking about the same general neighborhood, but the actual spot where Hanssen was nabbed. Hanssen lived in Vienna and had parked his car about three blocks from his house. So that's where Billy Ray had Chris Cooper park in the film. And they even shot it during the same time of year. Robert Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001. Billy Ray filmed the capture scene on February 6, 2006. The weather was the same, the lighting was the same. Everything was just as it had been when the real Hanssen was caught. The arrest happened in front of this woman's house. Her name's Pinkie, apparently. Or at least that's her nickname. She lived there then, and she's still there. When the crew was filming, she was very hospitable. All decked out in a pink sweater that said something like "I live where Robert Hanssen was nabbed," Pinkie kept the cast and crew warm in her house between takes and served them cider 'n whatnot.Robert Hanssen's wife Bonnie Hanssen (played in the film by Kathleen Quinlan) still lives in their house, three blocks from where the arrest happened. Billy Ray said she never spoke to anyone involved in the film. Did she know scenes dramatizing her hubby's downfall were being shot three blocks away? We don't know. Did she ever see the film? No one knows for sure. Billy Ray did mention that Bonnie Hanssen's brother is an elder in Opus Dei (that ultra-strict Catholic sect villified in The Da Vinci Code), and that Opus Dei tracked the making of the film. Apparently they approved. All they cared about was that Catholicism was treated respectfully, and it was. The Hanssens, as well as Eric O'Neill, are devout Catholics, and the movie conveyed well the perpetual struggle between their faith and their careers.
It wasn't all authentic, though. Billy Ray said that by far the biggest fudging of the facts was how the movie depicted Eric O'Neill as being lied to as far as why he was being tasked to Hanssen. His handler, played by the inimitable Laura Linney, says they want Eric to keep track of Hanssen's porn surfing or what have you. His sexual deviancy. It's not until Eric gets fed up with what he calls "sexual McCarthyism" that he confronts Laura, and she has to tell him what the real deal is. That's not how it went down. The real Eric O'Neill was told exactly why he was being tasked to Hanssen. Billy Ray said he changed it so that the Eric O'Neill character would have room to grow and change throughout the film. It's a story about lies and truth telling, and having Eric lied to off the bat was a good way to spur him on to becoming a different man by the end.
Also, at the peak of the investigation, the Bureau had 500 or so agents on the Hanssen case. I never got that sense at all during the film. Billy Ray said he had tons of those same agents asking him why they weren't represented in the film. But again, this is a film about how the Robert Hanssen case changes Eric O'Neill. It just isn't practical, right? To have so many peripheral characters in a two-hour flick.
Also, at the peak of the investigation, the Bureau had 500 or so agents on the Hanssen case. I never got that sense at all during the film. Billy Ray said he had tons of those same agents asking him why they weren't represented in the film. But again, this is a film about how the Robert Hanssen case changes Eric O'Neill. It just isn't practical, right? To have so many peripheral characters in a two-hour flick.
One thing Kevin wondered was how Bonnie Hanssen never caught on to her husband's secret spy work. As it turns out, she sort of did. Back in '79 when Hanssen first started working for the Russians, he made $40K in cash from his first drop. Bonnie found the cash in the house and said what the hell. Chris said that Hanssen fed his wife a white lie or something, telling her that secretly he was really spying for the U.S. against Russia and that he was going to donate all the money to Mother Theresa. No, really. According to Chris, that's exactly what Hanssen told the wife, and apparently she bought it because it never came up after that.
When Kevin opened up the floor to questions, the first question came from a guy up front wanting to know if the real Eric O'Neill was involved in the film's making. Billy Ray said that Eric was not only involved, but that he was on the set quite a bit as a sort of technical consultant. Again, this ties into Billy's passion for being authentic. For example, when shooting the scene with all those guns in Hanssen's trunk, Eric told Billy the exact kinds of guns they should get. Eric was in Toronto the whole time making sure the details were spot on. Billy Ray also pointed out that the movie does not exaggerate how much Eric O'Neill was shadowing Hanssen, nor how much danger he was in. "His peril was real," he said. Eric was Hanssen's body man practically 24/7 and therefore knew everything and anything about the minutiae of Hanssen's life.
Someone told Chris Cooper their favorite film of his was Interstate 60, and wondered how he went about picking his roles. Christ admitted that he was a hard guy to please, but otherwise there was no trick to it. He reads each and every script as it crosses his desk and picks whichever one catches his fancy. No deeper analysis than that.
When asked if he watches his dailies, Chris said that it depends on the film. He used to all the time, but he's gotten to a point where he can feel in his gut if it's going to be necessary to watch his dailies to track how well he's handling a particular role. For Breach, he said he didn't really need to. He'd done tons of research on the role and felt he could get a handle on it and that if he went astray, Billy would tell him. For Adaptation (for which he scored an Oscar), Chris said he looked at his dailies all the time because that character was about as big a stretch for him as he'd
ever had. So he wanted to make sure he wasn't getting too lazy with it. Billy Ray, for his part, said he never ever watches dailies. He did after the first day of filming Shattered Glass, and then after that decided he would never do it again because it was too terrifying. All he wanted to do after seeing them was go back to his hotel room and puke. Now he felt he didn't need to care about dailies at all so long as Jeff Ford was always his editor. Billy went out of his way to give props to Jeff, who also worked with him on Shattered Glass. "Jeff's the most movie literate guy I know," Billy said.
ever had. So he wanted to make sure he wasn't getting too lazy with it. Billy Ray, for his part, said he never ever watches dailies. He did after the first day of filming Shattered Glass, and then after that decided he would never do it again because it was too terrifying. All he wanted to do after seeing them was go back to his hotel room and puke. Now he felt he didn't need to care about dailies at all so long as Jeff Ford was always his editor. Billy went out of his way to give props to Jeff, who also worked with him on Shattered Glass. "Jeff's the most movie literate guy I know," Billy said. Someone asked Chris how he prepares for a role. As with the dailies thing, it depends on the film. In general he wants to get his hands on the script as soon as he can. In the case of Breach, he was able to get the shooting script by June of 2005, five full months before shooting kicked off. Once he's got the script in his hands, what he'll do is stay up late at night after the family's gone to bed and spend a few hours reading the script repeatedly. He'll spend weeks doing this so that by the time cameras start rolling he's probably read the sucker like a hundred times. With Breach being based on a true story 'n all, he also had to do some historical research. Something like four books on Hanssen came out in 2001 and 2002, within a year of his arrest. So Chris of course scooped them up and read them backward and forward.
When someone from the audience expressed surprise that Billy Ray had a hard time convincing Universal to cast Chris Cooper, all Chris could say to that was: "We've said it a thousand times. It's business. It's show business." Even after the film was greenlighted, Universal looked like they were going to pull the plug on the whole project anyway. In fact, they sort of did. Billy called up Chris's wife Marianne and apologized to her for screwing it all up. But then Marianne said Chris told her it was his fault because he wasn't a big enough box office draw. And so Billy and Marianne spent an hour on the phone apologizing to each other. It was all rendered moot in the end, of course, when Universal decided to back the film after all.
When someone from the audience expressed surprise that Billy Ray had a hard time convincing Universal to cast Chris Cooper, all Chris could say to that was: "We've said it a thousand times. It's business. It's show business." Even after the film was greenlighted, Universal looked like they were going to pull the plug on the whole project anyway. In fact, they sort of did. Billy called up Chris's wife Marianne and apologized to her for screwing it all up. But then Marianne said Chris told her it was his fault because he wasn't a big enough box office draw. And so Billy and Marianne spent an hour on the phone apologizing to each other. It was all rendered moot in the end, of course, when Universal decided to back the film after all.
Another question to Chris had to do with the most important lesson he's learned as an actor. The best way he could put it was that he's learned how not to know what the other actor in a scene is going to say to him. "I've taught myself to reach a state of unself-consciousness, so that no matter if there's 15 takes or 30 takes, with each and every take I'll not know what the other actor's going to say to me." Billy Ray chimed in with an example of Chris's talent. There's a scene in Breach where Chris Cooper is at a confessional. Instead of confessing, he sort of breaks down in tears. Co-writing the script as he did, Billy said that all he wrote was something like "Robert is kneeling at a confessional, and we a see a tear rolling down his cheek." That's it. That's all Chris had to go on. Yet watching it, he really made that scene his own. He does much more than shed a tear. By that point in the film Hanssen's really having a crisis of faith. Chris, having read the script oodles of times, understood that well enough to take the meager stage direction and run with it.
The film never addressed why Robert Hanssen spied for the Russians. Did Billy and Chris have any insight into that, someone asked? Of course no one really knows, which is why Billy didn't even bother trying to spell it out in the film. It would've been too obviously phony. There is a scene right after he's caught where Chris as Hanssen offers up three possibilities as to why he may have done it. They're all plausible. Perhaps it was a combination thereof. This is another similarity to Shattered Glass. In that film, Billy makes no effort to spell out why Stephen Glass felt it was okay to lie his way to the top. Stephen Glass and Robert Hanssen each had a very weird pathology that they themselves sort of had to wrestle with.
Someone at the very front who volunteers for the theater pointed out to Billy that both Shattered Glass and Breach demonstrated how expert he was in very meticulously building up the drama and amping up the suspense and working toward the climax. Because of that, did Billy ever consider doing a movie that was purely fiction? Billy said that to be honest, no he didn't. He said he felt silly making up completely fictional characters and fictional conflicts. In order for him to invest all the time necessary in making a feature, it just feels better if the drama he's depicting is taken from a real-life drama in which real people had issues at stake.
And finally, someone asked if the real Robert Hanssen had anything to do with the film. Billy Ray said no, the dude's under pretty heavy lock and key in the Supermax slammer in Colorado. However, the FBI did give him permission to mail 15 questions to Robert, so long as the Bureau could vet them. So Billy came up with 15 questions, the Bureau deleted one, and mailed the remaining 14 to Robert. Our country's most notorious double agent, however, was not interested in answering them. Which question did the FBI omit, you ask? "If you could run the FBI, how would you do things differently?"
