It was a fever, a bookshelf, and possibly divine intervention, that made Adam McKay realize he didnt know Dick.
In the late winter of 2016, the writer-director had just finished the awards-circuit death march for The Big Short, his look at the housing crisis. Then, a week after the Oscars, the 50-year-old filmmaker found himself laid up with what he characterizes as the worst flu you could possibly imagine. Hes recalling this while slumped down on a couch in the green room of the Robin Williams Center on West 54th Street, in midtown Manhattan; you can hear the dialogue, and occasional laughter, bleeding in from a Screen Actors Guild screening happening below us.
I mean, was sick for close to a month, he says, trying to adjust his six-foot-five frame so he can get comfortable. (McKays been having back issues lately.) He finally gives up, slouches back down and settles for adjusting the scarf around his neck. I mean, I made comedies! You do a junket or two, maybe you go to England but this? It was nonstop for months, just constant. You know how your body will hold a sickness? Suddenly, everything just hit me all at once.
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Delirious, the director behind Anchorman and Step Brothers turned to his bookshelf for salvation. And I looked over and went, Oh, a Dick Cheney book. It could have been any book. But for some reason, that was the one thing that caught my eye. He doesnt remember which biography it was probably Angler, by Barton Gellman but the more McKay read, the more he realized the former vice president may have been an even bigger influence on modern politics than hed realized. Once he recovered, he started going down a research rabbit hole, reading as many articles directly (and indirectly) about Cheney and perusing his interviews for a slip of the tongue. Which I couldnt find, he notes. I kept thinking there would be some point where he made a mistake, said more than what he meant to say. He never did theres no crack in his game. It made him even more interesting.
On SNL, we joked that he was Darth Vader, he adds. But I always felt like we maybe werent quite grasping how much he was gaming the system in Washington. I was always the one going, Guys, I think it may be even worse than we thought.'
That deathly ill reading choice became the starting point for Vice, McKays gonzo, mad-as-hell movie about the man who allegedly called all of the shots in Dubyas White House. (It opens on Christmas Day.) Starting with Cheneys drunken, hell-raising days in Wyoming and ending with the behind-the-scenes Beltway power broker literally having his heart removed, its a heavily researched, highly irreverent and often scathing look at the former VP. Tackling a subject that was known for being extremely evasive and tight-lipped, McKay knew that he couldnt do a standard A-to-B biopic. He figured hed have to swerve left when folks expected him to go right. And that was before he made one of the most WTF casting decisions of the past decade.
I mean, why wouldnt you think of Christian Bale as Dick Cheney? McKay asks, laughing. Yeah, I admit, it is a pretty big leap. But I didnt want someone doing an impersonation, and having worked with him Bale played The Big Shorts hedge-fund manager Michael Burry Id watched how he took apart and put a characters psyche together. Despite the fact that McKay had commissioned a friend whos a writer and a journalist to interview over a dozen sources about Dick and his family, he recognized that the political operative was a tough nut to crack. (Ask him who he interviewed, and McKay suddenly gets as tight-lipped as his subject. Lets just say it was some personal friends, some people from Wyoming, some people from the administration, some people who dont like them, theres some people that love them it was a nice mix of points of view.)
The point is, Cheney is a mystery, the director continues. So I knew I was gonna need a Christian Bale deep-dive here.
Even The Dark Knight actor found himself mystified by the choice to cast him as D.C.s prince of darkness; after reading the script, he recalled texting McKay, Do you not realize how bloody difficult this is going to be? But he signed on, and the two set about conquering the main obstacle: his appearance. The biggest hurdle was the makeup. Christian was like, If the makeup sucks, the whole thing falls apart. We brought in makeup artist Greg Cannom [The Curious Case of Benjamin Button], and they spent four months working on prosthetics. I thought the makeup looked amazing, but Bales like, It can be better. He also put on weight [45 pounds], so by that last round of changes...I just remember when he walked onto the set, we were like, Holy moly!
By that point, McKay had also cast Amy Adams as Dicks equally Machiavellian wife, Lynne Cheney; Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld; and Sam Rockwell as the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush. (Rockwell had the hardest job, the director admits, because Will Ferrells version is so definitive. But its good freakishly good what he does in the movie.) Then, during preproduction, the 2016 election happened. McKay asked himself: Do we still make this movie? And we felt like, Oh, this is even more relevant now,' he says. I want to know how the hell we got here, and I have a feeling Bush and Cheney were a big part of that. Ive said that Cheney was like the safecracker, the guy who had the keypad to open the gate and now the gates open, and you have deer and hyenas running around the White House.
Indeed, McKay feels that Vices more outrageous Anchorman-like moments a fake-credits roll in the middle of the film, the Cheneys engaging in pillow talk while speaking in Shakespearean verse, a maitre d describing a menu of legal loopholes and Gitmo torture options are completely in tune with our current moment. Its just horror and absurdity in the Trump era, McKay notes. And I just feel like this timeline sort of got swept under the rug. But people need to be reminded that theres a history, theres an arc. I dont know if this movie is going to change anything. But it was definitely cathartic to make it.
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