Oscar-nominated actor, known for Good Night, and Good Luck and the Bourne franchise, talks about his new film
W
hen George Clooney brought Good Night, and Good Luck to the stage earlier this year, it set a record for the highest-grossing play in Broadway history. Clooney, making his Broadway debut, was nominated for a Tony award for his portrayal of Edward R Murrow, a giant of broadcast journalism.
But for diehard fans of the original 2005 film of the same name, which was made in response to US involvement in the Iraq war, something was missing. In that version, Murrow was played by David Strathairn, one of the US’s most perceptive, subtle and compelling character actors. Why did he not reprise the role on stage?
“I was much too old and it would have been hard to actually pull it off that many years later,” Strathairn, 76, cheerfully admits via Zoom, his spectacles pushed up to rest on still-lustrous white hair. “Hats off to him [Clooney] for getting it to Broadway. The play would be an amazing part of a curriculum at schools of broadcast journalism or political science. I would hope that they would mount it to give some perspective.”
