We’re gonna let you in on a little secret. In theory, from an editorial perspective, the answers John Magaro provides when discussing his role in the impressive thriller “September 5” should be truncated. They are not supposed to be this long. They are not supposed to be…paragraphs. But Magaro, who can also currently be seen on the new Showtime series “The Agency,” is just a wealth of fascinating details behind the making of director and co-screenwriter Tim Fehlbaum’s breakout feature. And when history is the centerpiece of your project, every fact matters.
READ MORE: “September 5” Review: A captivating chronicle of historic Munich ’72 telecast [Venice]
A Golden Globe Award nominee for Motion Picture – Drama, “September 5” chronicles the almost 24 hours when terrorists attacked, kidnapped, and killed members of the Israeli Olympic team at the 1972 Munich Games. Unlike other narrative movies or documentaries on the subject, Fehlbaum’s endeavor is from the perspective of the ABC broadcasting team, whose primary job was to chronicle the athletic competition. As history unfolded, they became news breakers, giving the United States and the world live reports from the scene. As Geoffrey Mason, Magaro portrays the young backup control room director thrust into the biggest moment of his career. An unexpected position for Mason that the president of ABC Sports at the time, legendary television icon Roone Aldridge (Peter Sarsgaard), was not thrilled about.
Magaro learned a lot from Mason, who made a phone call only he could make that allowed him to shadow a live NFL broadcast while preparing for the role. The “First Cow” and “Past Lives” star has dealt with playing real-life figures before. Like anyone, their memories can be biased and often fuzzy, especially many years after the events. Happily, Mason was not “like that at all.”
“It is like he remembered every minute of that day. It was so precise,” Magaro recalls. “And he made it very clear to me because he was a little worried, too. He was apprehensive about it, as you should be when you’re making a story about something that important in your life. And he was also very protective of the other people who were in the control room. And in a sense, he felt like, ‘I shouldn’t be the one in the spotlight kind of vibe.'”
During our conversation the morning after the Governors Awards last month, Magaro went into detail about Mason’s contributions, how landing footage of Jim McKay and the actual broadcast came down to the wire, what about the subject matter appealed to him, and much more.
This interview has actually been edited for clarity and length.
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The Playlist: How was last night? Did you have fun?
John Magaro: Yeah, I think the Academy always hosts a good party. Some of these things are “eh,” but they always do a good job. And it was good to see a lot of familiar faces, and it’s always like a little reunion. You get to see colleagues you worked with who you haven’t seen in some time and catch up. And also, we have a good group with our “September 5” crew. All our Germans were carrying around in tow with us and so excited to be here. So over the moon, just living it up. They love it.
That’s awesome. This project comes your way. What made you say yes?
Well, the script comes along, and I’m working on another film called “LaRoy, Texas.” Sometimes, it’s hard to motivate yourself to read something when you’re working, but I looked at it, and I saw Sean Penn‘s producing it, and I saw Peter Sarsgaard is in it. So I’m like, “O.K., we got something here.” So I go back to the apartment I’m staying in, and I sit down and start reading it, and it just gets me, it’s captivating me. I just keep turning the pages. I find it thrilling. I find it educational. And then I also find it reminds me of films I love. “All the President’s Men,” “Spotlight,” “Goodnight, and Good Luck.” So then you start to think, “Oh, this is my chance to maybe do be a little Dustin Hoffman in ‘All the President’s Men,’ but the cherry on top was just the character of Geoffrey Mason. There was this rich kind of push and pull there for him that you have this young guy who’s trying to make a name for himself in this business, and you have Roone [Aldridge] on one side, played by Peter, this legend that you’re trying to impress and you’ll do anything to impress. And then you have this mentor in Marvin [Bader], what journalism should be. You feel like, “Should I stay in this camp, or should I go in that camp?” And it’s something that I know I identify with as an actor. As you’re building a career, you have these moments where you stay true to what it means to be an artist, or you sacrifice a little to have an advancement. I think we all feel that in our career. You are always questioning that. So it’s something that’s really relatable, and it just was rich, and I was like, “I’m in. I want to be a part of this.”
Geoffrey is still alive to this day. Did you want to reach out and speak to him? Or was the script enough for you?
No, I mean, if there’s someone around, I try and take in as much stuff as I can get, and some things I’ll throw out, some things I’ll leave in. I never know where that kind of spark is going to come that’s going to help me find the character. So I did want to talk to him. You never know when you’re reaching out to people who you’re playing or who existed or who related to people who existed. You never know if it’s going to be helpful or hurtful. Sometimes, it doesn’t offer a lot. Sometimes, it’s hard for people to have perspective on themselves. This was not the case [with Geoffrey]. As soon as we started talking, it was pretty clear I wasn’t going to be able to do this without him. I needed him. He is what in so many for everyone, for Tim, as the director and writer, for me as the actor for our production design team, everything.
He’s the one who has made this something special because, talking to him, he has such a clear perspective of what happened that day. And it’s such a three-dimensional memory. It’s not like you talk to people about memories, about things that happened in their life, and it’s sort of vague. And then they judge it, and they’re judgy, and they want you to do it this way or that way. He wasn’t like that. He made it clear. It is like he remembered every minute of that day. It was so precise. And he made it very clear to me because he was a little worried, too. He was apprehensive about it, as you should be when you’re making a story about something that important in your life. And he was also very protective of the other people who were in the control room. And in a sense, he felt like, “I shouldn’t be the one in the spotlight kind of vibe.”
And I guess that modesty that humbleness is what makes him such a good character to guide us through it. But he made it very clear that on that day, it was just focused. It was just telling the story. It was doing your job, no time for emotion, no time for judgment, stay on the air like that. Journalism 101 kind of kicks in, and you just do it. And then obviously even technical things we would talk about and stuff like that. The months in preparation, going back and forth between the U.S. and Munich building that facility. And it was almost like the Titanic. They built this beautiful facility. They had a camera in the tower. This was the first time it was live global. This was groundbreaking, cutting-edge technology. And then, in some ways, the ship [hits] an iceberg, and they’re sinking, and they’re trying to keep it together. But because they’re professionals, just like a pilot who is going through an emergency, you have to stay focused. You can’t become overwhelmed. You’ve got to keep doing your job. And it’s not until after 22 hours when he and Marvin go back to the hotel, and they have some drinks, that they weep, and it hits them what they have gone through and that lives were lost and all that s**t. But on top of that, Geoff, because he’s so revered in the sports broadcast world, he makes a call to CBS Sunday football where Sean McManus [was] the head who’s Jim McKay‘s son. And I get in there two months shadowing directors and producers, learning how to call a show, learning that.
And as soon as I got in there, you’re like, oh shit. This is how it’s done. If I don’t nail this, people are going to say, well, that’s Hollywood. That’s bullshit. It became so important to learn that language, to make it an extension of myself. And because I had that resource, I mean, I’d learned it, and I’d go home and watch sports and be calling kind of shows and doing it as I was sitting there at the TV, and then I’d get the headset, and I’d play with that. So it became an extension of my arms and limbs and the walkie-talkie and all that. But I think it was because I felt a responsibility to Geoff and obviously the victims and all that stuff. We wanted to get it right. And I’m going to school, I got to see free sports. So that was fun. But I also learned a ton in the research for this.
After doing all that research, did you have to go back and say, “Hey guys, if we’re gonna be factually correct I would say this directing a live broadcast” “I would do this”?
We changed it because we also didn’t know if we were going to have the footage until two weeks before. That was, again, that was Geoffrey Mason and Sean McManus putting calls out to Disney and ABC because all we had in the script was the public domain footage. “They’re all gone” moment. And we had a couple other pieces here and there, but we didn’t have all that. We didn’t have the interview with the Israelis. We didn’t have the interview with the German Minister of News or whatever. We didn’t have any of that stuff. So, that came in two weeks before we started shooting, which meant that we didn’t really know what was going to be on the screens when we were calling it. So, when I got there, and they finally had put together what we were going to be using, I just had to react to that. Because I had done the research, it just became me calling the show. The good thing is the language of a called show hasn’t changed in 50 years. It’s still the same language. There might be like a hundred screens now as opposed to 20, but it’s the same language.
The idea was always that Jim McKay and anything that was outside of the room or shooting the building where the hostages were was always going to be depicted by the footage that was broadcast. It was not going to be re-created for the film.
I think that was the hope. But I know there were conversations with Tim where we weren’t quite sure they were up until the end trying to get that footage that it really hinged on that. So, we were so lucky to get it. I mean, I don’t think he ever wanted Jim McKay not to be Jim McKay, but it extended our resources by having all of that footage. There could have been a world where we didn’t get it, and we didn’t have enough, and then they would’ve had to cast someone to play Jim McKay. These were all kinds of options on the table, and I was certainly scared that that was going to happen. We are sort of holding our breath that we were going to get this footage, but we didn’t know if we were going to get it. And we all sensed if we don’t get this, then we’re in trouble.
I’m guessing it was a relief when the original footage was secured.
It was like a party. When we got the word that we were getting the footage, it was like pop the champagne bottles in a way because that’s enormous. I mean, again, this movie would not be what it is. The best actor in the movie is Jim McKay. I don’t even want to think about what that version of this movie would’ve been. We just had such good fortune.
Do you know what Geoff’s reaction was when he saw the finished film?
Thomas [Wöbke], our producer, went down to Florida, where Geoff lives, and he showed it to him in a big theater. I got a call from Geoff right after it like a 15-minute message just going on and on about how much he loved it, how proud he was of me, how he was just, I mean, that’s the call you want to get, right?
Yeah.
A blessing. And now he’s running around all over the world championing it, so that’s great. I think we’re going to do some press together, which I’m really excited about because, I mean, he’s just a great guy, and I feel really lucky to have met him and that I’ve made him proud in this, too.
One of the things that I love about the movie is it is a film. It is cinema, and it is a fantastic film in that context, but it’s so rare that we get an authentic depiction of television history, which borders on 70 years at this point. And I’m wondering if you realized that when you guys were making it, how important it is, not just in terms of the historical events, but the mechanisms of television at this time. I think there will be people who work essentially in TV who will come up to you and feel like this movie speaks to them.
We’ve already had that. We’ve had people who worked at ABC, who worked with Roone, who worked with Geoff, come up to us the other night at the premiere, come up to us and just say, “That’s exactly how it was.” And that’s the greatest thing because I don’t think any of us wanted to go into this to make a Hollywood version of it. We wanted it to be real. That was the goal. That was Tim’s goal. The big reason he cast me was because he was like, “You do natural. You don’t do phony things like that.” And that was great. I was glad to have those marching orders, and that’s also what Geoff Mason wanted. We were all on the same page about that. And it was cutting edge at the time, right? It’s a moment in television history where this was being shared globally for the first time. So, it is a pivotal moment, just in that sense alone beyond the tragedy. So yeah, for television history nerds, it’s a really cool experience. And I think because Tim made it kind of docu-style, it just makes it more palpable because it doesn’t become this glossy Hollywood thing.
“September 5” is now in limited release. It opens nationwide on Jan 17.
