The New York Times did a profile on Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush biopic, “W” and actually talked to one of Bush’s former advisers, the architect himself, Karl Rove.
“I don’t think they made any attempt to have this conform to any reality except that which exists in the cerebral cortex of Oliver Stone, which is a brain with only a functioning left side,” Rove told the Times recently. “This is a political film that is an attempt to influence an election that is about four years too late.”
Rove is played by actor Toby Jones (whose last starring role was as Truman Capote in “Infamous”) and his role as Bush’s snakeoil salesman in the film is tiny (which we can confirm having read the script). Rove said he thought the trailer was a “caricature” and that he would never see Stone’s movie.
Told of Rove’s comments the director said Rove should see the film because it’ll be an extra $10 towards the box-office, plus Bush “looks good in many ways.” Stone said he considers Rove to be “one of the most devious men,” but gives him “the benefit of the doubt.”
Stone says his one regret about casting Toby Jones was that he wished he “had been taller like Rove, and fatter.” Oooh, snap.
Apparently some crazy, fantastical and imagined sequences (including one silly-sounding scene where Bush flew over Baghdad on a magic carpet as bombs rained down) that were not in the version of the script that most people have were cut from the film (does that mean it was shot??)
“It was wacky stuff that at the end of the day took us out of the movie,” Stone said about these scene. “We wanted to focus on the mind-set of this man. We don’t change anything in his true story. Don’t have to, because it’s a great story. Dickens would do it. Mark Twain would write a great book. This guy who is basically a bum becomes president of the United States.”