David Strathairn Quotations

There are biographies, I looked at a lot of photographs of him, I heard his voice over and over and over again. You get in there and get to know the man by all of those pieces of information.

I checked out all types of tobacco trying to find one that would be easiest to live with, I ended up using pipe tobacco. It burned slower, and it wasn't as harsh on my throat... It also smelled better.

Film is our literature, so we should tell stories that are apropos of our culture, in that we can learn something about ourselves.

It's either the Amendment or this Confederate peace. You cannot have both.

If it's a role like this one, an actual live person, a legend, there's lots of material laid out.

Decisions made in real time are never perfect.

So much money and energy is expended making a film that I think it should be used for positive ends.

Television and film are our libraries now. Our history books.

When you're creating a character out of nothing, you have to make all the guesses as to how they walk, how they talk, how they think. It was all there on the table for us to pick and choose for Murrow.

You work enough with someone and you develop a shorthand. You know how he likes to work through the day and he knows where you're vulnerable and where your weaknesses and strengths are, so it makes for a good team, a team that knows who's over there behind your back.

I don't think I could've carried the weight that Murrow carried.

Film, television and to a certain extent, theater are modern day libraries.

If anyone was talking about journalism in the '50s - it was Edward R.Murrow.

In order to crash the party and be a clown with your own skit, you had to be there for quite a while.

When people and animals die, they stay with us in our minds.

If anyone was talking about journalism in the '50s - it was Edward R.Murrow.

He has the biggest part in the movie. we wouldn't be here without him.

There is always something ticking with Murrow. He was described as a prince of doom, a man carrying a crown of thorns. I tried to show what was going on in his head.

He used his power to get it made with absolutely no compromises or concessions. He had hurt his back just before we started, and he was in terrible pain through much of the filming. It was a heroic effort on his part.

He kept saying that he was a better actor than he was a director, and that he was the worst actor in the room. That's what makes you want to work for him. He's the most modest star I know.

I think the film is beautifully realised. His legacy as a journalist was recorded - as it were - well, and certainly the important issues of the '50s - or even today - are delivered and presented to the audience in a rather honest and objective way.

I think they were being kind saying that. Murrow read his stuff, so I had that ace in the hole. If I froze in front of the camera, I could always just look down. But George said, 'We want you looking at the camera a little bit more than reading, OK?' ... And it was scary.

I think he was honoring a lot of sentiment in the community and trying to do what was right. His choice not to have football for the remainder of that season, I think, was a very important one because he said it's important for the families to be together and grieve, and it might just be too raw a moment to have a football game out there too soon.

I think George just nailed the whole thing, the whole time period, the whole look and feel of what that newsroom was like. I did a lot of research for the role and believe me, it's all pretty genuine, down to the very last cigarette butt.

You kind of get pigeonholed for various reasons. One thing I didn't do in this movie (that) I regret not doing was taking a pratfall. I think, as great as Edward R. Murrow was, in terms of cinema, you've gotta honor those great clowns.

When I first saw a rough cut of it, I knew it was going to have some kind of bells and whistles.

We were actually making news. He told each of us to cover a different subject and then find something that's germane and pitch it. It was improvisational acting and it was great.

Ed Murrow said that it would be a bad day for television if those who have most money control the marketplace of ideas. He said that in 1950. It's coming to pass.

It would be real nice to have some kind of bell or whistle attached to this film - it would give it a longer life. People seem to need that validation to go to a film these days.

The movie is a collaboration of idea and entertainment.

After a little while, I forgot I was watching black and white film. There's something luscious about all the gradations of gray that adds so much texture to film. It's good they didn't shoot this one in color; they would have lost all those subtleties, all those layers.

deep sense of the common man. He was born to the job that he did.

This movie isn't out to railroad you toward any particular bias, and that's where I think its power comes from,

all of you here, and all of those who will see this movie, all of those who are out there trying to bring truth to all of us so that we can make better decisions about our lives.

I tried all different kinds of tobacco to see which would be the least crippling and I ended up with pipe tobacco, ... I found that that burned less harshly. It also smelled better.

It's like a piece of music; you never lose sight of the theme. Each scene pushes off to the next like music builds and you can almost hear the next chord progression, so it has a strict structure, which is very compelling.

It was a process of listening, listening, watching, listening, reading, more and more.

It was like another finger, just this finger he always kept lit, ... It was always there, it seems; they said they never saw him without it.

It's really a presentation of life, as it was at that moment, in a really artistic way. Everything was double-sourced. George was determined to do this as a journalist.

Apart from stark fear, I was taken aback quite a bit. It was a huge responsibility to try and depict such a great man - such a great American.

In a way, they did just what Murrow did -- they let McCarthy speak for himself.

In this television moment, which is where his public presence mushroomed out from radio, there were images that were iconic,

In this film George presents issues that are important, essential and vital, whoever you are, about constitutional rights and the bedrock of a democracy. I am drawn to those kinds of stories because they inspire me - they are responsible to a populace and responsible to man.

But I find it's usually a collaboration. Very rarely does a lead exist without someone else holding on to the leash, so to speak.

I feel kind of like a deer in the headlights. It's quite a big dance and it's my first time on the floor.

I do believe he was a guy who could sit down and have a good time, spin a yarn and drain a bottle. People say he wasn't quick to smile, but when he did, it was bright, and he was fully engaged. But at this particular time (when the film is set), they were walking on eggshells and lots of risks were involved. There wasn't much time for frivolity; they were engaged in battle.

He paid a lot of dues to get where he is, and now there are a lot of doors open to him. The one he has chosen to walk through throws down a gauntlet. He has the good luck, the charm and the guts to do what he wants, and this film is what he chose to do.