Source: The West Wing Season 1 Part 1 DVD Release
Date: October 1999 (approximately)
Transcript:
Bradley Whitford...
...ON HIS INVOLVEMENT IN THE WEST WING
I am an old, old friend of Aaron Sorkin's, who
is the executive producer and writer. He had been
talking about doing a political show for a long
time and I had been interested in it for a long
time. The moment I became available, he called me
last year and asked me if I wanted to do it and
then I just had to audition for the powers that
be, and I got it.
...ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THIS ROLE AND
OTHERS HE HAD PLAYED
I've been basically playing supporting parts in
movies and you tend to get very, sort of, typecast.
And I... 'cause I'm like sort of a balding white
guy, I just play a lot of yuppie scum. [laughs] And
so it's a relief to play a really rounded guy. This
guy is... he's funny, he's passionate, he's flawed;
you get to do a lot of very dramatic things, a lot
of purely comic things. It's a great mixture.
...ON HIS CHARACTER
I identify with this guy's frustration and inability
to control his fury at moments. I even identify with
the way that this guy covers up a lot with humour.
So yeah, it's interesting. And the conflict that
this guy always has about whether or not he's making
concessions that he needs to make in order to get
something done, or whether he is being spineless.
That's something that comes up for me all the time,
and it's certainly part of this guy's job. Luckily,
my actions don't carry the consequences that this
guy's job does.
...ON THE SCRIPT WRITING PROCESS
Aaron is a very passionate, maniacal writer so
the scripts really come from him, but he is very
open to... y'know, we'll plan ideas and we'll certainly
tussle about stuff when the script comes out. So,
to a certain extent, he's very interested. If there's
some problem or something that doesn't ring true,
he wants to know why and he wants to correct it or
fight for it.
...ON RESEARCHING HIS ROLE
I read a lot of books; the Stephanopolus book was
a great bible because it was a very recent experience
in the WW. I talked to Dee Dee Myers, who is our
technical advisor who worked in the Clinton White
House, and the wonderful and zany Pat Cadell, who
worked in the Carter White House.
...ON THE RESPONSE FROM WASHINGTON
Well, it's interesting, 'cause we're actually going
back... We've gotten some feedback from John Pedesta,
who is the Chief of Staff - Clinton's Chief of Staff
- who liked it a lot but was confused 'cause he thought
everybody was too good looking and carried too many
files. [laughs] But he liked the show a lot. And
we're actually going back; we go back every month
and a half or so to shoot exteriors. So now will
be the first time that we're back since the show's
been on, so we'll see what they say.
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