Here’s a podcast about the film Conviction with star Sam Rockwell, director Tony Goldwyn, and subject Betty Anne Waters. [You can read a review of the film here.] While this may seem like a normal roundtable podcast, it is not. This is because I recently got a complaint from another reporter that I was using his questions and stealing his soul while he, I, and other journalists were attending a to-be-recorded, public roundtable. This, despite the fact that this person had appeared in many of my podcasts before and I identified him by name whenever possible — so it isn’t as if he hasn’t been properly represented. As a result, I felt obligated (though not legally, everyone’s tape recorders are running during these interviews, and questions asked are basically public domain by that point) to remove this person from the podcasts. And in this particular recording, just to be safe, I’ve removed everyone else and replaced them with their questions re-written and paraphrased and recorded by a terrible, terrible Alan Arkin impressionist. Why Arkin? Well doesn’t Arkin’s persona emanate from every film critic, anyway?

Covered in the 25-minute podcast are subjects like Tony Goldwyn’s view of his own role in the remake of The Last House on the Left; how Hilary Swank — who played Betty Anne in the film — can fool the real Betty Anne’s children into believing that she’s their mom; Sam Rockwell theorizing that his role as a CIA assassin in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind did not color his view of government policies; Goldwyn passionately detailing the struggle regarding removing a crucial bit of information in the film that would have colored the entire movie; and, most importantly, you’ll probably learn how to do a really awful Alan Arkin impression.

P.S. The rumor is that the first actress who was supposedly cast in the Betty Anne role before Swank that Goldwyn refers to (but not by name) was Naomi Watts.

Download the full interview.
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Tags: Alan Arkin, Barry Scheck, based on a true story, Betty Ann Waters, Betty Anne Waters, Chuck Barris, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Conviction, corruption, feminism, hick, Hilary Swank, impressionist, incarceration, journalism, journalistic ethics, Juliette Lewis, Kenneth Waters, Martha Coakley, Minnie Driver, Naomi Watts, New England, Peter Gallagher, Philadelphia Film Festival, podcast, politics, prison, R rated, Remake, Sam Rockwell, The Innocence Project, The Last House on the Left, Tony Goldwyn, true story

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 at 10:57 pm and is filed under Documentary, Drama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.