Doug Liman on Fair Game, Sidestepping Politics and How to Investigate the CIA

Today -- and I think we see this in Fair Game -- it's a very fine line between revelation and activism. The movie has Joe Wilson's big monologue at the end, for example. How did you balance the two?

I was most worried about the monologue as never wanting to preach or talk down to the audience. But the reality of Joe Wilson is that that monologue is 100 percent truthful for Joe. In fact, when we were at the Cannes Film Festival, the film screens at the Palais, there's a standing ovation, and there's a party on the beach afterwards. On the Riviera! All of the sudden there's squeal of feedback, and Joe Wilson has found a microphone. He's found an amp and a microphone at a party on the beach -- God knows where this thing came from -- and he starts giving a speech about the Bill of Rights and the responsibility of Americans... It was something I'd actually never heard him say before" "The Bill of Rights is a Bill of Responsibilities." I'm like, "Oh, my God. Anybody who thought I was exaggerating anything I put in the movie just needs to be here at this party right now."

Between stories like that and the movie itself, you must have known the political right was going to come after you. And sure enough, it did. Was there any way you could have avoided -- or considered avoiding -- this?

Call me naïve, but I'm hoping this film transcends the polarized debate that has consumed our airwaves. This film, at the end of the day, is a celebration of a CIA officer who gave 20 years of her life in the service of this country -- every day, going into work, never taking credit for what she did, working on a government salary to keep this country safe. In this case, she was an NOC -- a non-official cover -- which means that millions of dollars were spent to create her covert status and an identity that had no visible ties with the US government.

Part of that was sending her to business school; she ultimately worked for a company called Brewster Jennings & Associates [a front developed by the CIA -- Ed.]. She ultimately made half a million dollars, every cent of which went back to the government -- so that she could then go collect her $110,000 government salary. So here's a person who says, "You know, I could just quit the CIA and stick with the cover job, because I can make five times as much money." But she didn't do that. So to me this film is a celebration of Valerie Plame and, by extension, the thousands or tens of thousands of covert officers who fight every day to keep this country safe. As we're having this conversation, there are probably 1,000 CIA officers who are lying to a friend about what it is they did that day -- as we speak. Or they're lying to a spouse so they can do the missions they've been tasked with.

So maybe I'm naïve, but I'm hoping that's what comes through: a story of a couple speaking out. One of the foundations of this country to our ability to criticize our government without fear of reprisal. That's not a left-wing ideal, that's not a right-wing ideal. That's an American ideal.

As far as polarization goes, do you think we're beyond the ideological point of no return?

As far as a country, we may be beyond the point of no return. I try to fight a different fight and just stay on a different playing field. If you want to do something that's purely political and be left-wing or right-wing? I think Obama's finding out the hard way: It's very hard to find middle ground in this country. But I kind of did an end run around it. I said, "Let the left and the right beat each other up about the war. I'm going to do a film about more universal themes -- the kind of themes that both sides can agree on."

[Top photo: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images]

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