Tony Gilroy talks about law and art
The week before Michael Clayton opened in Seattle, Past the Popcorn Managing Editor Greg Wright had the chance to participate in a small roundtable interview with writer/director Tony Gilroy. Roundtables are sometimes hit-and-miss — Gilroy even asked the three journalists present what they thought of the format — but Gilroy made the process very smooth with honest and engaging responses to the questions asked. Greg did manage to get in a couple of focused exchanges with Gilroy, though, about his new film.
Michael Clayton is the tale of a man who gets himself way too deep into the inner workings of a top-flight NYC legal firm — and into the ethical problems of one of the corporation’s agricultural-products manufacturer clients: U/North. It’s a fictional corporation with fictional woes — but that never stops real-life lawyers from getting involved. And since the film is about the legal business, it seemed natural to Greg to start off asking Gilroy about the film’s legal process. From there, the conversation gravitated to the film’s artistic choices.
