Interview (Written): Matt Charman (“Bridge of Spies”)
An Awards Daily interview with Matt Charman, screenwriter, Bridge of Spies.
Awards Daily: How did Bridge of Spies happen?
Matt Charman: I feel like it’s a bit of a miracle in my life. I’m a bit of a history buff, especially for the Cold War and Kennedy Administration. I was reading a brilliant book by Robert Dallek called ‘An Unfinished Life’, it was a book about J.F.K and his first 1000 days, and it is an amazing book. There was a footnote on the page in the Cuba section, about this guy, James Donovan who was sent to negotiate with Fidel Castro to try to get back this serviceman who had been captured when the Bay of Pigs disaster happened. I remember thinking, there’s this American lawyer who’s been sent to negotiate with Castro, like, “Who is he?” Why would you send an American lawyer, why wouldn’t you send a diplomat?. I thought maybe there’s a story here. The more I dug around, the more I realized the story wasn’t in him negotiating with Castro, it was the reason he came to prominence, and the reason why J.F.K learnt about him in the first place, and that was because he had defended a Russian spy. A case nobody wanted. He got this guy off the death penalty, and had effectively made himself credible to the Russians. So when Gary Powers was shot down, the Russians reached out to him and said we want to organize a spy swap. They showed the correspondence to the CIA, it was completely bona-fide, they said, we want you to do this, but as a private citizen and not as anything to do with the American government. So he had to accept this mission, but had it gone wrong, they would have disavowed any knowledge of him.
He would have been an American business man found dead or disappeared in East Berlin. The more I pieced it together through the various sources, the more I thought this story is incredible, I can’t believe it’s never been told.
AD: I’d never heard about him, and all of a sudden we’re watching a film about him.
MC: Yeah, exactly. We’re also not just watching a film, we’re watching a Steven Spielberg film with Tom Hanks playing him. When I met the family when I was researching it, it was a really interesting moment. They loved their father, and knew what an incredible man he was, and what a patriot he was, and they knew he hadn’t had his moment really. No one knew about him, and he was a bit of a secret as far as the world was concerned. I looked them in the eye and told them I was going to do the best I can to really honor what your dad did. That I was going to get out the truth of how difficult it was, and know how bloody minded James Donovan was. This was a guy who believed something so strongly that he followed it all the way down the line.
That was an amazing moment, getting to look them in the eye, and have them say, “Yes, please, tell our dad’s story.
For the rest of the interview, go here.