At the Washington Premiere for 'In the Loop': When Moviemakers Meet Wonks

By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet. Posted July 18, 2009.

Iannucci explained that James Gandolfini, who plays a general in the film, spent a few days at the Pentagon doing research. "That's really the way they talk," said Iannucci. "[Gandolfini] said there's a lot of talk about dicks -- 'We're gonna put our dicks on the table' and that sort of thing."

"In preparation," he went on, "I met with a guy from the CIA, and it was a similar thing. He talked about someone putting on the knee pads -- and we were having dinner at the time. Rather put me off my steak."

Mike and I took our khaki-clad selves over to the afterparty at a slick joint called Co Co, where we happened upon Rasche, who is as handsome and affable in person as he was scary and mean on-screen as Linton Barwick.

"I detected a bit of Rumsfeld in [your character]," I said.

"Damn right you did," he said with a grin. "The dirty bastards." Actually, he explained, for years, during periods when not studying scripts or filming, he would watch as much as five or six hours a day of cable news.

What could possibly move someone whose career didn't depend on it to put himself through such punishment, I wondered aloud.

"The mistaken belief that if you're watching [what's going on in the world], you're actually doing something about it," he said, laughing. But it all paid off in the end, in his In the Loop character, whom he fashioned not just on Rumsfeld, but on Dick Cheney aide David Addington, as well.

In the crowded back room, we stumbled upon Spencer Ackerman, the national security reporter for the Washington Independent, who served as an adviser on the film. Ackerman was the best-dressed man in the room, sporting a white shirt and a natty tie. But then again, he's a native New Yorker; he just can't help it.

The movie gig came his way quite by happenstance, he explained, when he wrote what he contends was his Worst.Piece.Ever for The Guardian, in which he referenced a character from another Iannucci TV show, Michael Partridge. Ackerman was about to go off to Iraq on an assignment when he got the call asking if he would like to show the director around the secret power rooms of our fair city. Would.He.Ever!

Together, with Farah Stockman of the Boston Globe, he cooked up schemes to get Iannucci into places where feature-film directors dare not go (including that steak dinner with the ex-CIA guy code-named "Kneepads"). Iannucci really wanted to attend a State Department briefing, but he had no press credentials. Well, he had a BBC ID, the pair suggested. Sure, but that's BBC entertainment. Don't worry about it, the journalists insisted. "Just tell them you're there for the 12:30," Stockman told him, Ackerman said.

It worked like a charm.

So, did he find glamor there?

"It was very boring," Iannucci said.

Trailer for "In the Loop":

See more stories tagged with: war, film, comedy, in the loop, james gandolfini, armando iannucci, david rasche, anna chlumsky, mimi kennedy

Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's acting Washington bureau chief.