The guise of Deep Throat

Writer-director Peter Landesman believes FBI as an entity is a piece of mechanization

Peter Landesman has many feathers to his cap — an award-winning painter, novelist, journalist, producer, screenwriter and filmmaker. He is coming up with a biographical spy thriller film, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House. It is based on the 2006 autobiography of the FBI agent, Mark Felt, penned by John O’Connoris. It is a powerful story of a spy named Mark Felt, who under the guise of ‘Deep Throat’ helped journalists such as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to uncover the Watergate scandal in 1972.

When did you start writing the script and when did the shoot began?

I started writing almost immediately after Mark Felt confessed to being ‘Deep Throat’ in 2005. This article came out in a magazine that was the answer to the greatest political mystery of all time and no one knew who Felt was, even I had no idea. Thus, I started working on the script and we started shooting about a year and a half ago. So, there was a 10 year gestation period

Which part of the movie you find most fascinating?

It’s an FBI story and it unveils how FBI as an entity is a piece of mechanisation. It’s a machine which investigates and takes down

corruption. In this case, we’re stopped and it will talk about the repercussions that occur when the bureau is stopped from doing its job. It rebels and bites the hand that feeds it which is the white house. That was the most fascinating to me. Felt was running the FBI for many years and knew everything. He knew too much and thus, they couldn’t get rid of him.

What are your views on Mark Felt?

While Felt was dealing with the corrupt white house and taking down the most powerful man on the planet , he had a compulsive alcoholic wife who was really like Lady Macbeth, twisting the knife and giving him a hard time. He had a daughter who had been gone away for three years, he loved her. He was afraid that she’ll actually join the weather underground which in those days was the equivalent of ISIS. So, he as a person from FBI was hunting for weather underground. While as a man was hunting his daughter, trying to keep his family together. Watergate occurs, they destroy the FBI from inside out, followed by Munich massacre, all this happens within the same month. So, the fact that he was under so much pressure from every aspect and each one of these things could destroy a man completely. The fact that he was juggling three or four of these balls and still managed kept it together is praiseworthy. He, then became this creature completely and anonymously. Walking away into the sunset without credit, I think, is a remarkable task.

How did you decide to cast Liam Neeson for this role?

Mark Felt was a spy, he was still and quiet. He would just scan and he wouldn’t make big moves and Liam has that kind of a graceful dignity. He doesn’t move much but when he does it is really powerful. He was the only actor I went to with this role and we had a really organic conversation. He understood the depth and range of the character, what it was and what we’re trying to achieve through it. So, we agreed over lunch and it was an effortless yet beautiful journey there on.