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His name was Bob Roberts.
Bob Roberts was not Donald Trump.
‘Bob Roberts’.Credit: Everett Collection
Bush, Democratic challenger Bill Clinton, and independent billionaire Ross Perot.
The film grossed less than $5 million and disappeared from theaters before election day.
Im talking about the early talk-radio phenomenon, the Rush Limbaughs.
What was Machiavellian about that was that their messaging was anything but elite.
The messaging was to the working class.
And quite frankly, it worked.
How do you get the majority in this country to vote against their economic and social interests?
He believes in making money.
Hes not one of those sensitive liberals who makes you feel responsible for everything thats gone wrong.
You couldnt articulate a better explanation for the appeal of President Trump in 2016.
I honestly think that what Lynne Thigpen says is quite on the nose about Trump.
I guess I left in 1978, and stayed out in Los Angeles until 1985.
I was cast in a movie calledFive Corners, and I moved back for a couple months.
I rented an apartment in Greenwich Village and I saw what had happened to the neighborhood.
It had been gentrified.
Where an old craftsman used to make guitars, another chain had moved in.
Because it wasnt the Greenwich Village that I knew and I had grown up in.
So I wrote the short film in response to that.
So it was a satire on the gentrification of my neighborhood.
As time progressed, as I started to write the screenplay, Bobs ambition grew.
The businessman became a politician.
Was there always music?Yes, he was a businessman folk singer.
I actually shot one of the scenes at the Village Gate, which was this very famous nightclub.
Times are Changin Back was [one of the songs in] there.
I believe Dont Smoke was one of the songs and that became Dont Vote.
And This Land was Made For Me was in there too.
And this was back then, when there was a lot more appetite for indie films.
We cobbled together the financing.
And it was Alan Rickman that saved the film.
He read the script, loved the script.
He was riding on the success ofDie Hardat the time, and he meant something to the financiers.
SoBob Robertswas made because Alan Rickman signed on.
You have this amazing cast.
Its an eclectic bunch, and I assume most of them were like-minded, politically speaking.
Peter Gallagher, I had just worked with inThe Player.
James Spader had just worked with Susan.
Helen Hunt was one of the reporters.
Fred Ward and Susan, of course.
First of all, just the fact that he liked the script was huge for me.
It was, you know, validation, from someone who I really deeply respected.
But also, it allowed me to really tap into him.
So I had all my scripted stuff, and then I had this idea.
The idea was to sit Gore down and to interview him post-election, after hes been defeated.
And let him talk about America and talk about Bob Roberts.
I always saw it as my first directorial project.
Me beingin itwas the necessity to get it made.
You hadThe Playerright before?
And maybeShort Cutswas right after?
What was incredibly helpful to me was Bob embraced me as a collaborator.
At that time, I had been writing and directing in the theater for quite a few years.
The movies he was making were different than most of the movies I had seen.
Am I correct in saying you never released a soundtrack of Bobs songs?
[Laughs] Thats correct.
Was that your concern at the time?
You didnt want the parodies to be misusedI didnt want them played out of context.
These are songs that you obviously put a ton of thought into.
It was you and your brother, right?Thats right.
He wrote the music, I wrote the lyrics.
We also knew that we appropriating a form with lyricsthat were awful.
Awful in the sense of being divisive.
People got the joke.
And we changed some of the lyrics around.
We wound up opening up for Pearl Jam and Deathcab for Cutie on the Vote for Change tour.
Its tough to find accurate data from 25 years ago, but it looks likeBob Robertswasnt in theaters long.
Like a month, starting in just a few theaters and maxing out at about 300.
When you look back at the way it was rolled out, do you feel it got buried?
Because it got good reviews.It gotgreatreviews.
I was little disappointed, to be honest.
I felt they could have [done more] and more people couldve seen it.
You know, it was a challenging thing to sell.
I dont know, I dont know.
And the real test of a film is whether it can still play in 25 years.
Does it still speak to the audience?
And there would be some kind of fake healing to get him out of the wheelchair.
