Im david gregory, this is press pass. Weve got a special one today, the story behind the movie lincoln, the book inspired the Steven Spielberg film and shes a meet the press report and doris is back here. All of your books should inspire Steven Spielberg to make big films but he did this one here. Take me behind the scenes of that relationship with spielberg taking him to springfield and how this project was born. He wanted to do lincoln for many years but wanted to wait until he was ready. I met him way back in 1989 on a documentary he was doing on the mill len yum and he had any shake hands about doing lincoln. As relaxation, he would say, what did lincoln do today. I would tell him, what he did, 1864, 1840. He decided he didnt want to wait for the book. He bought it and that meant he had it ready in his hands and put tony kushner on it and he always wanted daniel daylewis. Before we get to him, what is it about lincoln he wanted to share with a broader u. Younger, new generation. He wanted to make lincoln a person you could identify with intimately. He chose a short story rather than a big fat thing to show his humor, sadness, conviction, political skills and he wanted to show that a politician can be a great guy at a time where were cynical about politics. And politics is letting us down so much. Daniel daylewis. Unbelievable character. I got to meet him and it hadnt been announced yet so they asked me to take him to springfield under an assumed name. The law offices, the museum, dont let anyone know its us. Somebody wanted a sandwich, some other people with us and somebody in the Sandwich Shop suddenly saw him and took a picture and they had to announce that daniel day was lincoln. I took him through mary and lincolns house and the ceilings were low and he couldnt wait to get out. He felt claustrophobic in the house and lincoln was claustrophobic in that house. He said he needed another year, i have to learn about this man. I would get messages, i need to read about henry clay and gone back in time. An extraordinary character. Once he became lincoln in a filming of this, there was no more daniel daylewis. Absolutely. When i went to richmond to the set, they would have pictures of sally field and mary there and Thaddeus Stevens and Tommy Lee Jones and at the top it said lincoln. The guy who played stanton said he was so nervous about meeting dain yell day and told you have to call him mr. Lincoln. Stanton had hurt lincoln in reality in the 1850s. I apologize, mr. Lincoln for having hurt you in the 1850s and daniel day, says, its all right, ive for given you. When they heard him coming down the hall, here comes the president. I think of you as a movie star and you have a movie star brought a clip from the film. Get this clip up in terms of what were seeing and brief look inside the movie. The main things that happens, lincoln makes a decision that he needs the 13th amendment because once the war ends, the emancipation pro clamation will no longer have legal validity. He was only able to issue it because it was a war measure. If the war ends with permanent dealing with slavery, that slavery could come back. Hes taking a huge risk by going to a congress that had already turned it down but he realizes a lot of democrats there lost their seats and he can use his power and give them jobs and what he wants. He trades jobs were not illegal but hell do anything he has to and you see these rauk us seen scenes. Heres a clip that we have. Well win the war, sir. Youll be getting your second term. Imagine the possibilities peace will bring. Why tarnish your invaluable luster with a battle with the house. Same gang of hicks and hacks who rejected the amendment ten months ago. Well lose. I like our chances now. Why does he like our chances now . Well, because he just feels like it has to get done now. It too long a big risk for him to do that, but the great thing is he gets lobbyists promising everything and even until the last minute in the film, youre not sure whether this amendment is going to pass. Spielberg got extraordinary acting out of all of the minor characters and you watch their face and suddenly their face falls and they are not going for it tore face smiles, im going for it. Ive watched the trailers, lincoln had a high voice . Absolutely. People say why didnt he become a baritone . There are people describing how he talked then. Great thing about having a high voice in the 1850s and 1860s, youre speaking outdoors, no microphone, high voices travel across the crowd. Steven douglas, you couldnt hear him five rows back. People also knew how he walked and there were people who described lincoln walked like a laborer and had the world of burden on his shoulders and hands behind his back. Watch the way he walks. Most importantly to me was lincolns humor comes out on the film. The only thing i insisted with tony, please put more stories in. And theres a bunch of times where lincoln tells stories that are irritating to everybody else around and hell tell a funny story. When he tells a story, his face comes alive and sadness goes away. Stories were his way of whistling off sadness because he had a mel an kolly temperament. Its so hard to put lincoln in a modern political context. I can imagine the twitter treatment of lincoln trying to abolish slavery, hash tag, how is he going to get this done. There is a leadership lesson that is important now and important for president obama embarking on a second term as he seeks to be what he wanted to be, not just a president but a great president. Absolutely. The timing of it couldnt be better. Its just coincidence that it happened to be. What the whole film is about, ach the election, before the new Congress Comes in, having to get something done with people who are leaving the office and coming in, and its compromise. Hes able to brill the radical faction who wants to have something much more than the 13th amendment. They want to have equality and the conservative faction not sure about this and the democrats who are against it. His leadership ability, theres a great scene, not just a scene but his actual words, i am clothed with immense power. You will get this vote. So a president is clothed to immense power if theyve used leadership skills to make it happen. Well be back with doris concerns goodwin after this. Oh, let me guess ou see this . More washington gridlock. No, its worse look, our taxes are about to go up. Not the taxes on our dividends though, right . Thats a big part of our retirement. Oh, no, its dividends, too. The rate on our dividends would more than double. But we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills. We worked hard to save. Well, the president and congress have got to Work Together to stop this dividend tax hike. Before its too late. Were back with more of our press pass conversation. One of things you have talked to about, the president is not quite a transformational president , certainly a historical figure, but not a transformational figure because he had not yet really been able to turn Public Opinion and you can craft it in such a way that lincoln could and did recognize the importance of it. I think the one thing that president obama said hes learned from his first term is that his communication skills were not as he wished them to be. Thats critical in a democracy. Athink Affordable Health care act is a transformational act. But you watch him on victory night. He was able to speak to the crowd with such energy and such conviction and moral strength because he needs the energy of the crowd. Its not a question of him not having the words, i think he needs to connect more to the people in the second term. Lincoln had Public Opinion badge baths where they could talk to him in the morning. If i were him in summer, i would take a train around the country with his family and stop at village stations, he needs that, almost like when hes with the crowds something happens to him and the white house becomes a bubble and the communication skills go down because youre not feeling the people. The reason fdr was not a great speaker, he had two press conferences a week. He got the feeling of the people through the people and the press, somehow hes got to keep the connection going in order to communicate better whats happening. Is it harder in this political environment to be a conviction politician . I think its harder to use the bully pulpit to express your convictions, it is not what it was in the old days. When lincoln gave a speech it would be printed in full in the newspaper. Everybody would read the whole speech. When fdr gave radio chats, 80 listened to it. Now its people are talking about it before its absorbed and somebody yells, like you lie and that becomes the story and networks cut back to ordinary programming. We need to allow the president S Communications to be absorbed more before the cable 24 7 kicks in. The power of your words and your work like team of rivals is well established. For you to be involved with this project with this film, what the power of that medium, of a f
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